Amber Peat: Teenage girl took own life after being humiliated by stepfather's punishments, inquest told

13-year-old forced to wear 'ridiculous' trousers to school and carry belongings in carrier bag

A schoolgirl who took her life after a family argument was humiliated by her stepfather months before she was found dead, an inquest was told.

Amber Peat‘s body was discovered three days after she went missing after a row with her mother in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, in May 2015.

The 13-year-old’s stepfather made her wear “ridiculous” trousers and she was made to carry her belongings to school in a carrier bag as punishment, Nottingham Coroner’s Court heard.

Amber’s form tutor at Queen Elizabeth School in Mansfield, Rebecca Beard, told the inquest that two months before the teenager died, she was “devastated” after coming into school wearing grey jogging bottoms instead of school trousers.

“The other children in the classroom thought that she had actually wet herself, because it was so unusual that someone would be wearing something like that,” Ms Beard said, according to the BBC.

She told the inquest Amber said she was forced to wear them by her stepfather, Daniel Peat.

Ellen Chapman, an inclusion support worker at the school, described the jogging bottoms as “over-sized” and “very out of place”, the Daily Mail reported.

She said: “The students thought she looked ridiculous. She got a lot of stick for it. Amber was very upset and embarrassed by it. She was unhappy that she was wearing them.”

Ms Beard also said Amber told her she had been woken up during the night and told to finish her chores. She said Amber said she had not been allowed to go to bed until 1.30am, after she had cleaned the floor for an hour.

She said Amber also later came into school with a plastic bag carrying her books instead of her normal schoolbag, and the teenager told her it was another punishment.

Ms Beard said she said she had also noticed Amber was “always hungry” and had lost weight.

“I was concerned she was being emotionally abused by her stepfather,” she said, according to the Mansfield Chad.

The inquest continues.

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