Ref. 29562-07TEENAGER Joanna Hewson, who was found hanging from her bunk bed hours after splitting up with her boyfriend, had a history of self harm.

The 13-year-old schoolgirl had just started back at school for the winter term on the day she died.

A Swindon inquest heard statements from Joanna's friends who believed her boyfriend had broken off the relationship on that day.

Although she was said to be a happy, pleasant and chatty girl, friends said they had seen red marks on her wrists where she had cut herself.

The inquest heard Joanna would talk about killing herself and had told one friend she had taken an overdose of pills in the past, although this was never proven.

Joanna, who wanted to become an art teacher, did not show signs of distress on her first day back at school.

She returned home in the even-ing where she used the computer, walked the dog and ate dinner with the family.

But when Joanna's mother Elizabeth Hewson looked in on her later that night, she said her daughter was upset and had been crying.

She said Joanna was sitting on her bedroom floor with her mobile phone sending text messages.

The inquest heard Mrs Hewson's attempts to talk to her daughter failed and she left the bedroom at about 9.30pm.

When she returned upstairs before going to bed at 11.30pm she checked in on Joanna. It was then she found her hanging by a dark-coloured cotton belt from the bed.

She screamed for her husband Tony and the two of them removed the belt. Joanna's grandmother, Pauline Hewson, who had been staying with the family for a week, telephoned 999.

Ambulance crews tried to resuscitate her as she was rushed to the Great Western Hospital in Swin-don, but she was pronounced dead in the early hours of September 3.

Two handwritten notes were found in her bedroom.

Mrs Hewson said: "Most of the time she would talk to me about friends. She enjoyed school. She came back happy."

One friend, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said that Joanna was emotional at times and tended to worry.

She said she thought Joanna would carry on harming herself in small ways, but would never actually kill herself.

Another friend said Joanna had cut herself in this way about 10 times in the year they had been friends and said it was "a way she got rid of the stress of it all."

Assistant deputy coroner for Wiltshire and Swindon Nigel Brookes said the evidence of previous self harm coupled with the breakdown of her relationship, led him to conclude she had meant to kill herself.

"It is clear from those notes that she expected the people who found her to read the notes after she had died.

"Why she did it we will never know.

"She had a loving and supportive family but unfortunately it wasn't sufficient on this occasion to prevent her from doing what she did."

Mr Brookes said cause of death was compression of the neck structures by ligature.

Verdict: suicide

l Jan Andersen, whose 20-year-old son Kristian killed himself in November 2002, said Joanna's friends had been in contact via her website since her death.

She said: "Support for children is vital if more suicides are to be prevented. There's not nearly enough counselling services in place.

"The website is very popular which is good that people are getting to know about it, but sad that children feel this way."

Jan founded the website www.childsuicide.homestead.com to provide help for the bereaved, as well as creating a portal for parents to find the help they need if they are worried their children may be suffering from depression.

Kristian, who killed himself with a drugs overdose, died just 10 days before his daughter Kayla's first birthday.

Alex Emery