Two teenage sisters, one of whom died from sexual abuse. Mental health issues have led to people claiming that there were no opportunities for them to be saved.
After struggling with the effects of childhood abuse, Sam and Chris Gould (from Fulbourn in Cambridgeshire) died four months apart.
Their mother Jane Cannon has now said ‘there were many opportunities early on’ to save her daughters, and that they were missed by the authorities.
This comes after two reports were published by Peterborough Safeguarding Children Partnership Board and Cambridgeshire Safeguarding Children Partnership Board. They contained around 20 suggestions for improvement in each of the cases.
Chris and Sam Gould were both from Fulbourn (Cambridgeshire), where they died four months apart after suffering as victims of sexual abuse.
ITV News Anglia spoke with Ms. Cannon: “If they’d been caught earlier and treated sooner, or if there had been greater curiosity among professionals, then we believe that many of the opportunities to assist them were available early.”
“Opportunities for abuse prevention at an earlier stage. Give them the therapy and care they need. As you can see, it became more severe for the girls than it was for us. It would have been much harder to change.
“But it was not a time when anyone stopped trying. We believe there were numerous opportunities. If things had gone differently, I think we’d be at a totally different place.
They were six years old when the abuse started. The twins lived in Hampshire at the time. It continued for many years, according to the coroner.
Although Sam pulled out her eyelashes and had a worrying behavior early in life, teachers offered support when Sam started self-harming. The family moved to Cambridgeshire by that time.
Chris overdosed for the first-time at age 14; while she was in hospital, Chris admitted that she had also been self-harming.
After Chris had told her friend of the sexual abuse she had experienced, a police probe was initiated. Sam then revealed that she too had been abused.
The police decided to close the case because neither the father nor the mother felt they could do video interviews.
When they heard that their abuser would not be prosecuted, their parents informed the reporters: “The twins felt totally invalidated.”
When the twins were around six-years old, they began to be abused sexually. They lived in Hampshire, according to the court.
Inquests at Huntingdon Town Hall revealed earlier in the year that Sam and Chris felt invalidated after finding out that they would not face prosecution for their abusers.
Sam passed away on September 2, 2018. He had taken a prescription overdose when he was 16.
Chris passed away on January 26th, 2019, just five months after she had turned 17. She was only 17 when Chris went to bed.
Inquests at Huntingdon Town Hall (Cambridgeshire) revealed that Chris and Sam felt invalidated after being informed in December 2016 they would not face prosecution.
Chris was indicted because she tried suicide several times, and that she had written a lot of suicide notes from May 2016 to her death in January 2019.
Nicholas Moss, coroner, said Chris’s death was “amplified” by her losing her sister. Chris made this statement the day following Sam’s death: “I was supposed not to be the first to die. She was supposed try to get to me.”
Now, inquests concluded that Sam died from borderline personality disorder due to childhood sexual abuse. Chris’s suicide was due BPD related to abuse and the death of her sister.
In a Prevention of Future Deaths Report, the coroner raised grave concerns over how two of their daughters were treated.
Both the Peterborough Safeguarding Children Partnership Board (Cambridgeshire) and their respective reports have made around 20 recommendations to improve both of these cases.
These include changes to the police’s approach to victims of sexual abuse, education for children with mental illness, procedures and coordination among all agencies in complex cases.
The serious case reviews are not conclusive. However, they do not conclude that, had those things been in place, any of the sisters would be with us today.
Call the Samaritans at 116123 for confidential support or visit any Samaritans Branch.