'Chances missed' to help groomed terrorism suspect

An inquest into the death of a 16-year-old girl who was groomed before being charged with terrorism offences has found there were missed opportunities to help her by the authorities.

Chief coroner Alexia Durran concluded there were chances for the police and Derbyshire County Council to refer Rhianan Rudd earlier for consideration as a potential victim of modern slavery.

Ms Rudd was the youngest girl charged with terrorism offences in the UK when she was charged with having weapon-making guides but the charges were dropped in 2021 after the Home Office concluded she was a victim of exploitation.

She took her own life in May 2022.

At the conclusion of her inquest on Monday, Ms Durran said at Chesterfield Coroner's Court there was arguably a "systems failure" by counter-terror police and the county council, which meant they failed to refer the teenager to the government earlier.

However, the inquest found no organisation was to blame for her death.

The inquest heard Ms Rudd had been groomed and sexually exploited online by an American neo-Nazi.

The coroner found she was also influenced by a former partner of her mother who had once been in a white supremacist gang.

Her mother, Emily Carter, said she accepted making errors and asked for the authorities "to stand up and admit their mistakes".

In a statement, Ms Carter said: "I believe there were many people in positions of authority who could and should have realised mistakes were being made in the way Rhianan was treated and that opportunities to support her were being missed.

"Throughout this time, I saw first-hand the impact these failings had on my daughter's mental health in the period before she took her life."