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News Corp Australia Network
December 2, 2017 6:39am
AN 11-year-old girl who was “unhappy with how she looked” posted haunting diary entries on Instagram detailing her plan to die before taking her own life.
Milly Tuomey scrawled “beautiful girls don’t eat” across her body in pen before telling friends on social media of her plan to die on a certain date.
She also told her GP she had a death wish and — after keeping the hidden “suicide diary” and a stash of medication under her bed — died on January 4 last year.
Her mum Fiona, of Templeogue, Dublin, told her inquest: “She’d cut herself and written in biro on herself, “beautiful girls don’t eat”.
She said: “We were terrified. We had no experience of this and no idea what to do.”
A coroner returned a verdict of suicide.
Fiona and dad Tim Tuomey said in a statement after the inquest: “Milly was loving and greatly loved, fit, healthy, connected, engaged and talented.
“When we discovered out of the blue that our child had told her friends on Instagram that she had chosen the day she would die, we couldn’t believe it. We did not know what to do.”
Dublin Coroner’s Court heard Milly’s parents were alerted to the Instagram posts by her elder sister and her school.
They took Milly to see their GP and during this visit Milly expressed a death wish.
She spoke about thoughts of self-harm and said she had been unhappy with her physical appearance for a number of years.
Milly had admitted to struggling with thoughts of self-harm. Picture: Supplied. Source:Supplied
Her GP recommended she see a clinical psychologist at An Cuan, a private counselling and psychotherapy clinic.
The Tuomeys made an appointment but the psychologist was no longer taking patients.
Milly was assigned to an art therapist, who was not qualified to make clinical assessments, the inquest heard.
She began a series of weekly appointments on November 24, 2015, where she was encouraged to explore her emotions through verbal and visual means.
The family was advised to go to their local emergency department if any concerns arose over Christmas or out of hours.
The court heard that on January 1 the family ate dinner together and watched a film. That evening, Milly declared she was bored and left the room.
She was found moments later in a critical condition and emergency services were called.
She was rushed to Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital where she died on January 4.
In an excerpt from her diary, Milly had told how she hoped to be a famous doctor, get married and have children.
She wrote: “When I am 23 I would like to have my first baby and when I’m 24 my second baby. If I have two girls I want to call them Vanessa and Grace Tuomey,”
Coroner Dr Myra Cullinane commended the Tuomeys for their decision to donate their little girl’s organs.
The coroner noted that further resources were required for child and adolescent mental health services and recommended the provision of information to support parents and families while they wait to be seen by services.