The short and desperate life of Petra, the girl nobody helped

The short and desperate life of Petra, the girl nobody helped

The inquest heard how Petra's problems started when she was five and her parents divorced. She and her identical twin sister, Kirsty, were beaten by their mother; sometimes they were locked in a cupboard with dogs at their home in Buxton, Derbyshire. When they turned nine, social services were called in. The twins were sent to live with different foster carers because they fought so much.

The pair were reunited a few months later when they were placed in the care of a foster family. But the inquest heard evidence that Petra was sexually abused while in care, triggering episodes of self-harm that would become a pattern in her life. Petra was moved to a children's home where, at 14, she was raped. Her self-harming episodes increased dramatically. At the home Petra became pregnant by a teenage boy who refused to have anything to do with their son. She was moved by social services into a halfway house for young mothers.