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Teenager Jasmine Clarkson left suicide notes on her body before she hanged herself

Jasmine was found dead in a park in November last year

Heather Saul
Friday 07 March 2014 12:47 GMT
Jasmine Clarkson hanged herself in a Cirencester park in Gloucestershire
Jasmine Clarkson hanged herself in a Cirencester park in Gloucestershire (Google street view)

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A teenage girl who hanged herself in a park scrawled suicide notes on her body in black marker pen.

An inquest heard Jasmine Clarkson, 14, wrote: “the voices told me to do it” and “I have no purpose so goodbye” on her body before her death.

The teenager also wrote on her left palm: “Jasmine Clarkson, 29.6.1999 - 7.11.2013”.

Detective Inspector Jan Blomfield told the inquest that: “I don’t know why I’m here, I have no purpose so goodbye,” was written on the back of her hand.

“There were also messages to her family and people she loved telling them not to be sad because it was not their fault,” he said.

Jasmine was found hanging from a tree in a Gloucestershire park by a woman walking her child in November.

Jasmine had told her mother and her mother’s partner that she thought she may be bisexual nine months before her death, a coroner heard yesterday.

But her mother told the hearing in a statement that the family reassured her it was not an issue for them and they would “love her regardless”.

In July last year, Jasmine also took an overdose while at Cirencester Kingshill school and received medical treatment.

Jasmine’s mother Deborah Clarkson, who was not present at the inquest, said in a statement she saw the overdose as “a cry for help."

She said her daughter had also been in minor trouble with the police shortly before her death for setting fire to a notice at a bus stop, according to The Stroud News and Journal.

"She was not a troubled girl. But she didn't know what she wanted to be. It was like she wanted to be a bad girl but couldn't," her mother said.

Ms Clarkson also said Jasmine had received some “nasty comments” on the social network site AskFM, so she instructed her daughter to stay off it.

After her death, police searched Jasmine’s home in Cirencester and found diaries discussing her feelings of depression and suggested she was in “mental turmoil over her sexuality”, the hearing was told.

Coroner David Dooley gave a verdict of suicide as the cause of the “independent minded, clever and boisterous' youngster’s” death.

Anyone struggling with suicidal feelings can get confidential support by calling the Samaritans in the UK on 08457 90 90 90.

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