13 Year Old schoolgirl died after accidentally hanging herself

 A schoolgirl died after accidentally hanging herself with a 10ft-long ribbon while playing on a bannister at home, an inquest has heard. Davina Butchere, 13, was wearing a blue ribbon loosely around her neck when she slid down the stair bannister at her house in Allenton, Derby. As she reached the end, the strip of material got caught – causing her to slip and end up hanging.
The teenager was discovered by her brother with the ribbon looped around her neck and despite her family’s desperate attempts to resuscitate her, she was pronounced dead. Now, a coroner at Derby and South Derbyshire Coroner’s Court has ruled that Davina’s death in 2009 was a ‘tragic accident’. The court heard that the teenager’s mother, Michelle Dove, had seen her daughter with the ribbon tied loosely around her neck, with the length of it trailing behind her, shortly before her death. The schoolgirl was said to have been in ‘good spirits’ after spending the day shopping with her mother and buying new clothes. But later that day, her brother, Davani, 12, ran to his mother, saying he had found his sister hanging after playing a game on the bannister. The schoolboy cut the ribbon from his sister’s neck, while both her mother and stepfather, John Scrimshaw, started to perform CPR on her. Paramedics were called to the scene, but the teenager had already died, the court heard. Despite earlier rumours that the schoolgirl had taken her own life, Mrs Dove had always believed her daughter had been playing a game that had gone wrong. ‘It was like a door that couldn’t be shut because of the stigma around people saying she had killed herself,’ said Mr Scrimshaw, 42.   Sadly, Mrs Dove died aged 41 from a brain tumour last November – just months before Davina’s death was ruled to be accidental. The court heard that, at the time of her death, Davina had been living at home under a care order following concerns about her relationship with her mother. Carol Durand, Davina’s social worker, told the inquest the teenager had been ‘a very complex young person’ and, at times, ‘difficult to work with’. The schoolgirl, who had spent time in a children’s home, was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder in 2008. But, Mrs Durand said, she had been very happy with the way Davina had been since returning to her family home in June 2009. ‘Davina was a climber – if there was a tree she would climb it. ‘She was very tomboyish, very active. She had lots of energy’ Carol Durand, social worker ‘She seemed relaxed and comfortable and in the main was much happier to be at home,’ said Mrs Durand. ‘The whole time I saw her at home she was sparkly, chatty and happy.’ She added that the description of Davina sliding down the banister fitted her ‘energetic’ personality. ‘Davina was a climber – if there was a tree she would climb it,’ she said. ‘She was very tomboyish, very active. She had lots of energy.’ Detective Superintendent Rachel Walker told the inquest she believed Davina had slid down the banister, before becoming caught on the final post and falling off. She added: ‘I don’t think there’s any foul play and that it was a tragic accident.’ Assistant coroner Louise Pinder agreed, saying: ‘There’s no evidence that Davina deliberately undertook this act, namely placing a length of ribbon around her neck and around the banister, with the intention of ending her life.’ She concluded the schoolgirl had become suspended by the ribbon as a result of her ‘playing on the stairs’, causing her accidental death on September 7, 2009. Speaking after the inquest, Mr Scrimshaw said he and his wife had been making plans for their future when the tragedy struck. ‘It was a tragic accident,’ he said. ‘Michelle was devastated and never really recovered because there was always a part of her missing. ‘I tried to keep her spirits up but I know there were times when she felt like everything was closing in on her.’ ‘I have lost everything, my dreams, the lot. But I hope that I can slowly climb back up to some normality.I have to take each day as it comes’ John Scrimshaw, Davina’s stepfather   He said the family had been making plans for a fresh start in his wife’s homeland of Tobago when the mother was diagnosed with a brain tumour. He said he had returned home from work one day in September 2012 to find Mrs Durand very weak and with slurred speech ‘like she had had a stroke’. He took her to hospital where she diagnosed with a meningioma – a non-cancerous tumour – on her brain. Mrs Durand was transferred to the Queen’s Medical Centre in Nottingham for an operation, but never recovered consciousness after surgery. She remained in a coma until she died, 14 months later, in November last year. ‘I visited her every day without fail,’ said Mr Scrimshaw. ‘When Michelle died, it completely devastated me. Before that, I hadn’t really dealt with the grief of Davina. ‘I have lost everything, my dreams, the lot. But I hope that I can slowly climb back up to some normality. I now just have to take each day as it comes.’