I’ve waited 6 years for answers about my Sophie’s death
Family fury over delay to inquiry into teen tragedy
THE mother of a teen who took her own life has slammed the Crown Office over delays in an inquiry into the tragedy.
Sophie Parkinson, 13, died at her home on the outskirts of Dundee in 2014 after looking online at “suicide guides”.
Six years on, her family are still waiting for answers on why it happened and reassurances it won’t occur again.
At a preliminary hearing at Dundee Sheriff Court yesterday, ahead of a fatal accident inquiry into the death, Sophie’s mum, Ruth Moss, revealed she has lodged formal complaints about the delay.
Ruth, who will be the lead witness at the inquiry later this month, said: “It has been a long time. I ended up making complaints about the Crown to the ombudsman because of the length of time it was taking.”
Ruth is also concerned the root causes of what happened to Sophie may not be fully investigated.
She added: “They are very much focused on the steps taken subsequently rather than actually looking at the defects that were there.”
She says psychiatric teams in NHS Tayside could have done more to support her daughter in the years leading up to her death.
Sophie was a second-year pupil at £13,000-a-year Dundee High School. In days leading up to the tragedy, she was said to have been looking at online content relating to self-harm and suicide.
Ruth first sought help from mental health services when Sophie was seven.
The inquiry into her death will focus on whether the NHS care was good enough.
Lord Advocate James Wolffe, Scotland’s most senior law officer, ruled the FAI should be held as Sophie’s death gives rise to “serious public concern”.
Ruth has previously said that earlier suicide attempts by Sophie had been dismissed as “childish cries for help” and NHS Tayside’s CAMHS – Child and Adolescent
Mental Health Services – had not provided enough support to Sophie following these incidents.
Ruth said: “I just hope it’s not a box-ticking exercise, that it’s something robust and in-depth and we get questions answered, which is all that any family wants.
“Our primary objective is to ensure other families don’t go through what we’ve been through as it changes your life forever.
“Sophie would have been 20 this year. It’s what you lose in the future as well.
“When you lose a child, you don’t just lose the past, you lose what they would have become and that is really hard.”