Semina Halliwell’s mum reveals ‘heartbreaking’ police failure

The grieving mother of a schoolgirl who killed herself after police discouraged her from pressing rape charges has revealed how she only discovered her 12-year-old daughter had left a suicide note three years after the tragedy.

Semina Halliwell, from Southport, Merseyside, was allegedly raped by an older boy who attended the same school as her after he groomed her over Snapchat into secretly meeting him.

Family members of the Year 7 pupil, who had autism, say Merseyside Police officers discouraged her from pressing charges against the boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, when she first reported the rape. 

In a later police interview at their home, three months after the allegations were made, Semina said ‘I’ve had enough of this’ and went upstairs. Her mother thought she meant she was fed up with the police, but Semina took a lethal overdose.

Paramedics rushed to the scene after the family discovered empty medicine packets and Semina was taken to hospital. She was placed into an induced coma, but suffered multiple organ failure and four heart attacks before dying on June 12 2021.

Rachel’s battle with Merseyside Police has been well documented as she is still waiting for her daughter’s inquest and has never been allowed to get her daughter’s phone back.

Speaking to MailOnline three years after her daughter’s death, she said: ‘I think I’ve got to a point where enough is enough. I’ve been waiting over three years. I only recently found out after three years that she’d left a suicide note on her phone.

‘The police never told me. I found out after her three-year anniversary which was in June. And I had to find it out by reading it through the [Merseyside Police] disclosure.

‘They’re refusing to give me the phone back. They told me that it’s going to be destroyed.’

Rachel found the suicide note in the disclosure documents for an inquest on June 25 this year and said: ‘To read that note word for word that she’d put on her phone absolutely just broke me. 

‘I felt like she died all over again. I was broken. I couldn’t believe it. I just could not believe what I was reading. It was absolutely heartbreaking.

‘It’s even painful talking about it now, because it’s still quite fresh, that note.’

Rachel first came into contact with Merseyside Police when Semina broke down on her and told her what had happened following a severe  self-harming incident. 

Family members have previously alleged how officers  discouraged Semina from pressing charges by saying it would be her word against his and that the case wouldn’t go to court for 18 months to two years.

They also alleged how police did not inform Semina’s school of the reported rape, meaning she was forced to stay at home to keep her away from the alleged perpetrator. 

Three months after the initial complaint, during another interview in the family living room, Semina went upstairs and took a lethal dose of a toxic drug used to treat a chronic condition.

Rachel alleges that the boy, who was never charged, even admitted to police that he had sex with Semina but claimed she consented. Rachel claims this would still be a crime as a child of 12 cannot give consent.

‘That little girl died thinking it was her word against his,’ Rachel told MailOnline.

‘Her death could have been prevented because they knew it wasn’t her word against his. Why could they have not told her? Why could they have not have come and told her, yes, he has admitted it.’

When asked how she felt she had been treated by police, she told MailOnline: ‘It’s absolutely disgusting. I can’t even begin to tell you. How can I move on with my life? I can’t.

‘I feel really let down. I’ve never been in a situation like this to know how the process works. But from my experience I feel like it’s been very slow. I feel like there’s been delayed tactics.

‘I personally feel like cover up after cover up after cover up. I believe that all interested parties are just delaying tactics, and I believe it’s so the story of Semina will eventually die down and go away.’

There will be another pre-inquest hearing in November, but Rachel fears it could still be a long time before the full inquest.

Semina’s mother is furious that she cannot get her daughter’s phone back from police, three years on from the tragedy.

She says she has been told by police that she can’t get it back because there are ‘inappropriate pictures on there’.

Rachel told MailOnline: ‘The pictures that they’re talking about, I actually know what they are.

‘When she was pressured into meeting the perpetrator, she was pressured into sending naked pictures. And so I’ve seen those pictures.

‘Even when the case was closed over the rape, when we sat in my living room, my solicitor was present, the detective sat there and said, ‘Oh, I’ve gone through her phone and the photos – they’re beautiful, and there’s lots of her singing and dancing’.

‘There’s thousands of them and then I said, ‘Oh that’s wonderful, I can’t wait to see them’. And he said, ‘Oh no, the phone will be destroyed’.

‘So in one breath he just told me that with a lovely smile on his face that there was beautiful videos of us singing and dancing and photographs to then telling me, no, you’re not getting the phone back.’

Rachel told how her solicitor asked why police wouldn’t be able to just remove the images and give her the phone back with the rest of the ‘beautiful photos’. 

Adding to Rachel’s grief and anger has been a campaign of abuse from the perpetrator’s family.

Her voice shaking with fury, she explains: ‘We’ve had three years of absolute hell from that family. I’ve been chased in my car, my car was spat at. Nothing happened to her [the perpetrator’s mother].

‘I’ve been followed, beeped at, screamed at. There’s been abuse to my oldest son.

‘Her son has threatened my younger son. It’s been multiple, multiple, multiple crimes that every single one I’ve reported to the police, every single one, and yet they protect them.

‘The perpetrator, he’s kept his head down, and he’s kept quiet. And he’s never been seen.

‘He has never come up on social media. He’s never approached me. He’s never made himself known. He’s never caused trouble. But his mum and her eldest son have.’

While the family are still reeling from the shock suicide, Rachel’s eldest son, George, has been to prison twice but was released in April this year.

Rachel explained: ‘He had already been to prison when his sister died after he got into terrible mess. Something was said to him and he ended up beating somebody up and so he went to prison.’

When he came out of prison, his younger brother Rafy was waiting for a taxi when the alleged rapist’s sibling started shouting abuse at him.

George then sent a furious message to the mother of the two boys and ended up being recalled to prison. ‘It was just an awful time,’ Rachel recalled. 

A spokesperson for Merseyside Police said: ‘The matter is currently being considered by the Sefton, Knowsley and St Helens coroner and as such it is not appropriate for Merseyside Police to comment on any of the substantive issues raised at this time, as we would not wish to prejudice the coronial investigation. However, we have, and are, co-operating fully with the coroner in this matter.

‘A formal complaint relating to the police investigation was received and is currently being reviewed by the Independent Office for Police Conduct.’

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