A New Zealand schoolgirl who was driven to suicide by apparent abuse on Facebook posted the bullying comments herself, an inquest heard today.
Micaela Emily Kimiora Pinkerton-Stothers took her own life in July last year after apparently becoming the subject of bullying on the social networking site.
But an inquest into her death was told today that the 17-year-old, from Tokoroa, New Zealand, helped create a Facebook page in which she wrote an anonymous rumour about herself.
'Bullied': Micaela Stothers' family insist she was the subject of Facebook bullying before she took her own life
Raymond Gardiner, a close friend of the teenager, told the hearing in Rotorua today that he and Micaela had set up a Facebook page called Rumour Hate.
Mr Gardiner told coroner Wallace Bain that Micaela write a post purporting to come from an anonymous source, claiming that she was pregnant and had had an abortion.
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He was 'adamant' Micaela had written the words herself, and was at a loss to explain why she had 'cried and cried' about the message to her grandmother, according to Australia's Courier Mail.
Olivia Chisholm, operations manager at internet safety firm Netsafe, told the hearing the posting had been made by the person, or people, who created the Rumour Hate page.
However, the teenager's mother, Heidi Hartley, insisted it was impossible her daughter would have made up the comments about being pregnant and having a termination.
Micaela's inquest in New Zealand heard the 17-year-old posted bullying comments about herself on an online page
Mrs Hartley said: 'I just don't believe it. I believe my daughter, not anybody else.'
Speaking about the apparent Facebook bullying post which drove her daughter to suicide, Mrs Hartley said she had called her crying and was 'very upset' about the post.
She added: 'She asked me what she should do about it.'
Coroner Dr Bain reserved his decision on the inquest, which he expects to deliver no earlier than September this year.
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