Lauren Lelonek was a 16-year-old girl that took her life at her family home in Cheshire, England, in 2016 after she endured years of threats on social media and physical misdemeanor against her, according to an inquest.
According to Assistant Cheshire Coroner Peter Sigee, the “intelligent, smart, and beautiful” teenager had been failed repeatedly.
The 16-year-old did not receive mental health support and her school didn’t immediately separate her from the perpetrators. Mr. Sigee reported that all of these were “missed opportunities”, but he wasn’t sure if they would have altered the tragic outcome.
Two girls at the ages of 17 and 18 were both given community punishments after they admitted harassing Lelonek for six months prior to her tragic end.
The hearing heard that Lelonek and her friend Libby Boland were both targets of the perpetrators, even though they had previously been friends with them. The two girls that harassed Lelonek and Boland had been, reportedly, waiting for them to come outside of their school, the University of Chester Academy in Northwich, and Lelonek had confided to her family members that she was too frightened to leave the house alone in case something happened.
Her parents said in 2016 that the two girls would wait for Lelonek outside the school and make threats, and she went through hell for years, not just the six months they said in court.
Even though the parents and the girl had called the police and met with the school, and say that very little was done to help their daughter.
Miss Lelonek’s family, including her parents and her 4 siblings were present in court as evidence was heard, and they detailed shortcomings in the now-dissolved University of Chester Academies Trust anti-bullying policy, as well as Cheshire Police’s investigations about the case.
