Bullied girl, 14, took her own life after party

A bullied teenager died by suicide shortly after leaving a Manchester party, an inquest has heard. 

Uma Gupta, 14, told friends her mum was going to pick her up but was hit by a train that same evening, on March 2, 2019. Her parents have paid tribute to her as ‘always the life and soul of the party’.

The hearing at Manchester Coroner’s Court was told Uma had previously been bullied at school and kept a secret diary, which was only discovered after her death. The youngster, from Didsbury, was also upset by the suicide of a distant relative in September 2018, the court heard. 

As she left left home on the night she died, her parents told her ‘how beautiful she looked’.

They said: ‘She seemed happy.’

Uma, who had performed in a choir alongside Ariana Grande after the Manchester Arena terror attack, was hit at East Didsbury railway station in south Manchester at around 10pm. 

She had left the party at a friend’s house after becoming upset, telling friends she was getting a lift home, but instead walking to the station.

The Parrs Wood High School pupil made numerous diary entries in the months before she died expressing her unhappiness, the inquest heard. 

One entry, from 10 October 2018, read: ‘Don’t be upset. I wasn’t happy and things weren’t going to change.

‘Just imagine I was never here. I love my family and friends.’

At the party, witnesses say Uma’s mood changed. 

She began sobbing in the kitchen and bathroom, saying: ‘I don’t want to be here.’

In November 2018, her family began to notice that she was often ‘low and withdrawn’.

On December 21 that year, following a party at a friend’s house, she was taken to Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital by police after being found in the street banging her head against the floor saying that she ‘wanted to die’.

During the psychiatric assessment she revealed she was being bullied at school by a girl who had ‘threatened to stab her’.

Paul Heron, head of learning at Parrs Wood, said the school had been aware of the bullying and had taken several steps to tackle it, including excluding the bully.

He said there had been no reports of any other incidents after mid-January 2019 and that it ‘didn’t seem like anything was wrong.’

The Easy Didsbury school’s headteacher, Mark McElwee, described Uma’s death as ‘very upsetting for the whole school community’.

He said a number of new measures had been introduced in school following her death, including a confidential bullying reporting line, the introduction of ‘mental health champions’, staff trained as mental health first aiders, and the introduction of an ‘ask twice’ policy regarding pupils’ well-being.

Senior coroner Nigel Meadows recorded a conclusion of suicide.

Mr Meadows said: ‘The reasons why any person wishes to harm themselves are many and complex.

‘Some of them may never be understood.

‘In respect of the issue which has been described as bullying there was a conflict in July 2018 and other contacts that Uma had with the young lady in question.

‘There were allegations of bullying, I accept that is the case.’

He added: ‘But Uma’s diary is consistent and clear about her mental health.

‘I am satisfied that Uma is the only person who caused herself to leave the platform in front of that the train.

‘I am satisfied she deliberately did that and all the available evidence is that’s what she intended to do.’

In a statement, Uma’s parents said: ‘Uma was always the life and soul of the party and didn’t struggle to make friends.

‘She loved life and will be missed by everyone. She lit up a room whenever she walked in. The family home is not the same since she died. It’s very quiet.’

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