Three girls died after failings in the care they received from NHS mental health services in the north-east of England, an independent investigation has found. Who were the vulnerable girls who died within eight months of each other in 2019-20?
Christie Harnett (born 13 February 2002, died 27 June 2019)
Christie was born in Slough, Berkshire, in 2002. In 2008, the family moved to Durham. She had an older sister and four younger brothers.
She first came into contact with NHS child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) in 2012, when she was 10 and in year 6 at primary school. She had anxiety, depression, an eating disorder, a complex mental health disorder known as emotional dysregulation and a history of serious self-harm.
“She was a very happy baby, meeting all her developmental guidelines, and was our little ray of sunshine. When she started talking, she became a chatterbox, able to hold conversations with people from the age of two,” her family recall.
As a girl she loved to sing and dance, took part in school plays and concerts and loved watching musicals, especially The Greatest Showman.
Her family add: “Christie was a beautiful, courageous, caring, independent young women, with a fiery temper and spirit. There was never a dull moment with her around, especially with her cracking sense of humour.
“Christie was just starting to grow into her adult self. We could all see this vibrant, passionate, exuberant, beautiful young woman who was going to step into her future life.
“We all miss her so much. Nothing will ever be the same again now our sunshine has gone. Our lives darker, our hearts for ever broken.”
Nadia Sharif (born 1 February 2002, died 9 August 2019)
Nadia grew up in Middlesbrough. “She was caring, very bright, always smiling and funny to be around,” her family recall. “She had an ordinary childhood, loved going shopping, getting dressed up and spending time with her family and helping around the house.”
She was “an extrovert in that she loved going out and being out with friends and family”. She was a dancer and a gymnast. She disliked one thing: loud noise.
Her relatives say she was “bubbly with her friends and sociable until she went into hospital”.
The report on her death said Nadia “was very gifted at maths and enjoyed doing artwork [and] she enjoyed going on fast rides at theme parks, shopping and watching TV. Her appearance was really important to her and she loved shopping for clothes and makeup.”
Nadia began receiving care from CAMHS in 2012 after being referred to them because of problems at school. She was found to have a learning disability and in 2016 she was diagnosed with autistic spectrum disorder. She had several admissions to West Lane hospital starting in 2016. She began to self-harm while spending time in a psychiatric intensive care unit in Bury.
Emily Moore (born 4 February 2002, died 15 February 2020)
Emily grew up in Shildon, County Durham. She had a brother, Ben. She went to the Brownies as well as gymnastics, swimming and ballet lessons.
At primary and secondary school she was “a well-liked pupil with a fairly large group of friends and very bright, attending many after-school activities, and did very well in her exams considering her mental health at the time”, say her parents, David and Susan.
“Emily loved shopping from as far back as we can remember and was an animal lover with many pets throughout her short life and loved elephants, though we stopped at only allowing guinea pigs and cats.
“Holidays and TV were a big part of her life also growing up. Ironically, our daughter passed away on the same day as the TV presenter Caroline Flack, who she loved watching on Love Island, one of her favourite programmes.”
She had complex mental health problems and was in regular contact with NHS services, including the Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys (TEWV) mental health trust, in the three years before she died.
Emily took an overdose in 2017. She was an inpatient at TEWV’s West Lane hospital in January to February 2018 and March to July 2019. She had been transferred from child and adolescent mental health services to adult mental health care provision on turning 18, shortly before she died.
