Dorset schoolgirl kills herself in the woods after sending 'goodbye' Facebook message to friend

Sophie Clarke disappeared in June last year

Police hunting for missing 13-year-old Sophie Clark found a body (PA/Dorset Police)

A 13-year-old girl who disappeared in Dorset last year took her own life, an inquest has heard, after becoming convinced “everyone hated her”.

Sophie Clark, from Dorset, went missing on 14 June last year after she left her home at 6pm, saying she was going for a walk and would return two hours later.

Her body was later discovered by a passer-by in the woods off Dancing Hill in Sherborne the next day.

An inquest heard that before Sophie left her home, she had told a friend on Facebook she was planning on self-harming, before sending a “goodbye” message, the Mirror reports. She then switched off her computer and left the house.

Sophie’s mother had died of Cystic Fibrosis when she was three years old. The teenager had found her mother’s death difficult to cope with, the inquest was told, and had overdosed on drugs and been taken to hospital three months before she disappeared, Metro reported.

Consultant psychiatrist Dr Zoe Ellison-Wright told the inquest that Sophie “said most days she would cut her arms legs and stomach and said it had become an addiction and helped her calm down,” the Daily Mail reported.

“She had thoughts she would be better off dead because then the pain would go away she thought everyone hated her, including her friends but acknowledged there was no real evidence for this.”

Dr Ellison-Wright said Sophie had been having suicidal thoughts but that she had no intention of taking an overdose again, Somerset Live reported.

"She said that most days she had been cutting herself. She said it had become an addiction, and helped her calm down. She said she was trying to stop,” she told the inquest.

Sophie was referred to her school’s specialist services after it was noticed she had self-harmed. She began seeing a counsellor, who said she appeared “bright in mood” in their last session.

Dorset coroner Sheriff Payne said Sophie’s outlook on life had appeared to have been improving before her death at that there were no signs of “alarm bells”.

"There is nothing that could have been done that could have prevented this. Clearly the school was very alive to the mental health of its pupils […] and appropriate action was taken in the early stages once it became clear that she was cutting herself,” Mr Payne said.

"But at the end of the day, she was the one who took herself off to this remote location and then sadly ended her life.

"I am extremely reluctant to reach this conclusion - it is so, so sad that someone so young feels that is the only way forward."

Mr Payne recorded a verdict of suicide.