Bridge leap girl planned ski holiday

Wednesday 22 June 2011

A GIRL who leapt to her death from a bridge with a friend in an apparent suicide pact was "all laughter and chatting" on the day she died, a fatal accident inquiry has heard.

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LUCINDA CAMERON

Georgia Rowe’s aunt, Tanya Oliver, told the inquiry at Paisley Sheriff Court she felt “ecstatic” after visiting her that day at the residential unit where the girl was living as she felt the teenager had turned a corner.

Georgia, 14, and Neve Lafferty, 15, died after falling more than 100ft from the Erskine Bridge in October 2009.The pair were residents at the nearby Good Shepherd Centre, which cares for young girls referred to it by local authority educational and psychological services, social work departments and children’s hearings.Ms Oliver cared for Georgia from the age of nine months as her sister was not capable of looking after her and describes her as her daughter. When the girl’s behaviour became too challenging she was taken into care in summer 2008.She said that, after visiting Georgia at the centre in Bishopton on October 4, 2009, she had high hopes the youngster could soon come home.Ms Oliver said: “The day she died she was all laughter and chatting. She had so much to look forward to.“We were planning on going skiing in February and she tried jackets on in the equestrian shop and asked if they would be suitable for skiing.”She added: “I was ecstatic at the end of the day. I drove away from there very happy.”The inquiry heard that Georgia had been fully moved from the secure unit into the open unit the weekend before she died after a transition period of around five weeks. Ms Oliver said she had not been happy about the move because she felt Georgia was not ready for it.The inquiry heard the teenager had a “Jekyll and Hyde” personality, and could veer from being “really lovely to extremely aggressive”.Ms Oliver wiped away tears as she remembered the words Georgia uttered as she left her home in Sorn, Ayrshire, in June 2008 to be taken to a foster carer and then on to care in Hull before an eventual return to Scotland.The inquiry heard that Georgia told her: “I can’t wait to see you dead. I want to see the blood trickling out of your eyes and your ears.”Ms Oliver, who never adopted Georgia, said: “It came as a complete shock to me to see my own daughter saying that.”Georgia was sometimes violent, once banging Ms Oliver’s head on the kitchen unit and rattling the knife drawer and hitting people with “Bibles and books, anything”.She said she suspected something was wrong with Georgia and had heard about foetal alcohol syndrome. However, Georgia was never tested for this.The inquiry heard that, on June 19, 2008 Georgia’s behaviour became so poor that Ms Oliver spoke to the headteacher of the girl’s school, Notre Dame High in Glasgow.She also spoke to her own GP who, she claimed, said that once a child threatens a parent, they cannot return to the family home as they can be a danger to the family, and social workers were contacted.The inquiry, before Sheriff Ruth Anderson, continues.

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Bridge leap girl planned ski holiday

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