A POLICE investigation into the death of a 14-year-old found hanged in her bedroom uncovered no evidence she was the victim of internet bullying, an inquest has been told.
Asked by the Leicester and South Leicestershire coroner Catherine Mason if there was "any evidence" Hannah Smith was subjected to cyber-bullying, Detective Sergeant Wayne Simmons said: "No, there isn't."
Mr Simmons, of Leicestershire Police, added that on the "balance of probabilities" the "vile" messages posted about Hannah to the social media site Ask.fm were posted by the teenager herself in the run up to her death on August 2, 2013.
Ms Mason, recording a verdict of suicide, praised the teenager, from Lutterworth in Leicestershire, as "intelligent, bright, clever, and bubbly", and offered her condolences to her family.
Ms Mason said: "It was quite clear that when Hannah died it was a huge shock to all that knew and loved her. Understandably there was as an immediate searching as to why this had happened."
"Friends and family saw those (messages) after the event and that caused a lot of upset. The evidence I have was that on the balance of probabilities they would all have been at Hannah's own hand. Why she did it, I don't know."
Giving evidence earlier at the inquest at Leicester Town Hall, her father DavidSmith said that his daughter had been involved in a fight with a friend at a party five months before her death.
He said he believed his daughter had been bullied for some time and believed her eczema had been the reason she was targeted.
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