A TEENAGER committed suicide after becoming concerned about an offensive photograph she had taken being shared online.
Tragic Phoebe Connop, 16, had been speaking
regularly with an Asian lad who she called her boyfriend despite the two
having never met.
An inquest heard she shared an edited picture of herself where her
skin tone had been darkened as she wore a scarf wrapped around her head
in a private Instagram chat with pals.
The schoolgirl said to friends that is what she would have to look like to get approval from her ‘boyfriend’s’ parents.
But a coroner was told the image was then
taken out of the private chat and spread wider by one of her friends,
prompting Phoebe into fearing a backlash.
Black Country Coroners Court heard Phoebe
had been working with her father Laurence, 53, to get some money for her
summer holidays on July 7 this year.
He had taken her home early due to her
feeling unwell but tragically found his daughter hanging when he
returned after work expecting to find her ready to go for a meal.
Just days early on July 2 the award-winning gymnast had posted pictures of her school leavers prom on her Facebook page.
Giving evidence at the inquest, which was
held on Friday, Detective Sergeant Katherine Tomkins, from West Midlands
Police, said: “From speaking to her friends in the weeks following her
death, we discovered that the image had circulated further than she
wanted it to.
“There had been some negative reaction and
she confided in her friend, who did take the image down at her request,
that she was scared of what the reaction might be from the Asian
community in her area.”
The inquest heard Phoebe, who lived in Halesowen, West Midlands, was a talented gymnast who had ambitions of becoming a midwife.
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