A 12-year-old rape victim took her own life directly after an interview with a police officer who had previously discouraged her from bringing forward a criminal complaint and subsequently failed to properly investigate it, her mother has told Sky News.
Semina Halliwell, who had autism, alleged she was raped by an older boy who attended the same school as her and had groomed her over Snapchat into secretly meeting him.
Her mother, Rachel Halliwell, contacted the police after Semina broke down and told her what had happened following a severe incident of self-harm.
But officers from Merseyside Police “made Semina feel like she was an inconvenience to them”, according to two family members who were present during interviews, and no charges have been brought against the alleged perpetrator who Semina named.
Discouraged from making the complaint
Rachel, alongside Semina’s aunt Clare Halliwell, said the lead detective “sat there and started talking about all the forms he’d have to fill in if she made the complaint and how long it would take him to fill those forms in”.
The detective “said to Semina that, you know, basically, it’s your word against his and do you really want this hanging over your head for 18 months, because it wouldn’t go to court for 18 months to two years,” said Clare.
Semina’s autism had already made it a challenge for her to express herself to strangers, they added.
The family told Sky News that Merseyside Police did not inform Semina’s school of the reported rape, despite assurances to the family that safeguarding would be in place. This meant she was forced to stay at home as she was not protected from coming into contact with the alleged perpetrator.
Harassment and witness intimidation
Following the initial interview, Semina and her family – including a sibling – were targeted in a campaign of online and offline bullying and witness intimidation, including several violent assaults, that the family believe were committed by associates of the alleged perpetrator and which they say Merseyside Police also failed to fully investigate.
“They said anyone going to the police are going to go get their heads kicked in. And that’s exactly what happened. Semina was beaten up three times, videoed, her [sibling] was beaten up in school,” said Rachel.
The family said that during this period only two girls were prosecuted for assaulting Semina. Other incidents were not fully investigated, they complained.
Rachel was also convicted of an assault which took place shortly after Semina named the alleged perpetrator. Sky News cannot identify the victim for legal reasons.
“Even though there were videos of [Semina] being beaten up on social media, the police did nothing about it. The officer, the detective, said ‘Well, things have quietened down now, so if I go around it might kick off all over again’,” Rachel added.
Final interview with police
Three months after the initial complaint was made, during another interview in the family’s living room regarding the rape and harassment, Semina said “I’ve had enough of this” and went upstairs.
“I thought she just had enough of the police being here, the police doing nothing,” was her mother’s understanding at the time.
But Semina had gone to take the medication which would kill her, consuming well above the lethal dose of a toxic drug used to treat a chronic condition.
After the police had left, the family discovered the empty medicine packets and Semina was taken to hospital in an ambulance. Over the next few days she would be placed in an induced coma and suffered multiple organ failure before dying.
“It was horrific to watch my daughter pass away. It was terrible what she went through, three heart attacks, operations, they were going to amputate her legs, amputate her fingers,” said Rachel.
“People seem to think that when you take an overdose you go to sleep and you die. No she didn’t. She didn’t at all. We had to watch her die, her body shut down first. No parent should go through that.”
“We had the medical team sobbing around us,” said Clare. “I remember [the consultant] coming to me and he was crying through his glasses and I don’t remember how long they were there, I just remember that she was warm when I first touched her but then she went cold, she went cold, she started to go blue.
“Nobody said she died. Nobody told us. Nobody could say it.”
Semina’s grave was vandalised
The family was not left to grieve in peace.
“The day after her funeral, somebody put out on Snapchat – which was a fake account – £10,000 for somebody to video and trash Semina’s grave. And two weeks later, it was [trashed],” they told Sky News.
The videos of Semina being bullied and violently attacked – videos showing her being dragged and pushed to the ground and punched and kicked by other girls – were sent at the family on social media following the funeral, as were messages celebrating Semina’s death.
Her family say Merseyside Police consistently failed to properly investigate this harassment just as the force failed to properly investigate Semina’s allegation of rape.
Harassment targeting the family
“We had Snapchat pictures, edited of her lying in a coffin, or decomposing, sent to us [from] fake accounts, and the police either couldn’t or wouldn’t do anything about it.
“The police did say if she had been murdered, then it would have been different because they could have triangulated the signals to the phone to prove that they were near people they suspected of doing it, but they couldn’t do that because it wasn’t a serious crime,” Clare told Sky News.
“The police failings are absolutely disgusting,” said Rachel, who blamed “the perpetrator, his family, Merseyside Police, and social services”.
“Everybody who is paid to safeguard her let her down. Not one of them told her she was worth their time.”
“We’ve been robbed of a massive piece of our family, and for the last nine and a half months we’ve been robbed of the ability to grieve that loss,” said Clare.
Police issues with digital investigations
Rachel and Clare Halliwell contacted Sky News following our investigation into police failings in the case of Abdul Elahi, a prolific online sexual predator who targeted girls and vulnerable women.
More than a dozen victims had reported him to their local forces, but none of those reports were pursued until after Elahi was identified by the FBI investigating the blackmailing of a 15-year-old girl in the US.
Instead, according to multiple victims, British police gave them the impression that it was they who were to blame for being extorted into sending intimate images of themselves.
Officers also incorrectly told the girls and women that they could not obtain any evidence from the digital platforms Elahi had used to extort and blackmail them.
A study from the University of Suffolk in 2018 warned there was “an urgent need for training across police forces” – as fewer than a fifth of police force members knew how to collect evidence from technology companies.
Semina Halliwell’s family said Merseyside Police responded similarly regarding the harassment of the family and Semina over Snapchat, and they do not believe the police sought any data from the company as evidence.
According to Rachel, the police “tried to justify their actions – or lack of them – by saying Semina wouldn’t hand the phone over” and countered this by saying Semina had “offered her phone up several times”.
Even then, seizing a victim’s phone is not essential to the investigation of these crimes, as stated by national training materials seen by Sky News.
One training presentation from the College of Policing advises that “capturing a screenshot of a social media post regarding a hate crime may be sufficient to prove the offence. Seizure of the device may not necessarily be required”.
In the case of Snapchat, although the content of messages is usually automatically deleted after 30 days, the company can retain metadata and potentially content if it receives a request to do so.
In its advice for law enforcement, Snap says it can also provide basic subscriber information – potentially including phone numbers and the IP addresses used to log in – as long as police provide a username.
According to Europol these two types of evidence are the most important information that investigators can collect during digital investigations, while content data is only the seventh most valuable.
Location data, as would have been established by the triangulation methods suggested by officers to Semina’s family, was considered only the eighth most important type of data when investigating digital crimes.
Semina’s phone was taken by Merseyside Police following her death and is still in the police’s possession.
The family has requested that it be returned to them as it contains images and videos of Semina which are not available elsewhere.
Coroner to hold inquest in due course
A spokesperson for Snapchat was unable to confirm whether the app had received any requests for information from Merseyside Police in Semina’s case.
They said: “This situation is devastating and our thoughts are with the family at this difficult time.
“Nothing is more important than the safety and wellbeing of our community. We strictly prohibit bullying, harassment and other types of unwanted contact.”
“Our global law enforcement operations team supports police investigations, and we have the ability to preserve and provide content to the authorities when we receive requests for assistance,” they added.
A spokesperson for Merseyside Police told Sky News it was “not appropriate” for the force “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,” the spokesperson added.
The force declined the opportunity to discuss any of the family’s complaints with Sky News.
A spokesperson for the Home Office said: “This is a heartbreaking case and our thoughts are with Semina’s family and loved ones.
“No woman or girl should live in fear of violence or sexual abuse and victims should never be denied the justice they deserve.”
They added: “This is why we are committed to ensuring more perpetrators face the full force of the law and overhauling our response to rape including increased funding for victim support services.
“It is important that the coroner is given the space to reach their conclusions and it would be inappropriate to comment further at this stage.”
The senior administrator at the Sefton, St Helens & Knowsley Coroner’s Service told Sky News the initial inquiry was ongoing and a full inquest into Semina’s death would be held in due course.
Anyone feeling emotionally distressed or suicidal can call Samaritans for help on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org in the UK. In the US, call the Samaritans branch in your area or 1 (800) 273-TALK