Tallulah Mary Scarlett WILSON · Prevention of Future Deaths report

On 18 October 2012, one of the assistant coroners for Inner North London commenced an investigation into the death of Tallulah Wilson, a fifteen year old schoolgirl.

I concluded the investigation at the end of the inquest on 22 January 2014. The jury made a narrative determination, finding that Tallulah jumped in front of a train, taking her own life.

I attach to this report a copy of that narrative.

The jury found that, as a result of Tallulah’s dissatisfaction with her friendship group, she created an online persona.

She posted about self harm and suicide. She included photographs that she said were of herself following cutting.

Her consultant psychiatrist gave evidence that, with hindsight, it seems that when her Tumblr account was deleted (following her mother’s discovery of the damaging nature of her posts), Tallulah may have felt herself to be in some way deleted. Thousands of people had read her posts and she had gained great satisfaction from that. So on the one hand, her intent use may have had a negative impact; and yet on the other hand, preventing her internet use may have had a negative impact.

The jury included the following in the narrative determination.

“This case has highlighted the importance of online life for young people. We all have a responsibility to gain a better understanding of this, which needs to be achieved through appropriate dialogue. This is a particular challenge for health professionals and educators.”

Although Tallulah was treated by a number of healthcare professionals, and her mother was extremely concerned about her wellbeing, no person who gave evidence felt that, at the time they were looking after Tallulah, they had a good enough understanding of the evolving way that the internet is used by young people, most particularly in terms of the online life that is quite separate from, but sometimes seems to be used to try to validate, the rest of life.

Research; the development of improved clinical practice at a national level, details of which are then disseminated by national training; and risk assessment refinement, all seem to be key.

Digital lives basic training and audit is already available, but is not part of standard induction training to raise awareness for all in psychiatric and psychological fields, let alone for all doctors.

I heard at inquest that the Department of Health has taken the lead nationally on youth suicide prevention, commissioning research exploring the use of the internet and trying to understand the role of social media in youth suicides. It is for this reason that I direct this report to you.