THE mother of a 16-year-old girl who died after taking heroin for the second time says it comforts her to know her last words to her daughter were: “I love you.”

Eighteen years have passed since Michelle Kearney lost her “sunflower, the daughter she gave her own name to and the 52-year-old says she will grieve forever.

Michelle died days after she was turned down for a place at a secure unit, a last resort option for children who are at risk of harming themselves or others.

She was the first young person in Scotland to die under those circumstances, which thrust the family into the media spotlight.

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Four years earlier at the age of 12 Michelle disclosed to her mother that she had suffered sexual abuse at the hands of her late, maternal grandfather from the age of two.

The case went to Glasgow’s High Court but the verdict was not proven. It was “the beginning of the end,” for her daughter, Michelle says.

Her behaviour spiralled out of control and it emerged she had been working as a prostitute.

A hearing of the Children’s Panel recommended she should be placed in secure care, which was backed by a social worker, psychologist and independent assessor. However the recommendation was not supported by the chief social work officer, who makes the final decision.

A Fatal Accident Inquiry ruled that no laws had been broken, but Michelle believes the decision of the Children’s Panel should have been upheld.

Michelle now works as a counsellor for the Family Addiction Support Service in Glasgow (FASS) which has been running for more than 30 years and has 20 city-wide support groups.

She says families who have lost a child through drugs can feel their grief isn’t as “valid” as other bereaved parents because of the stigma of drug use.

A memorial service, is being held next week in Glasgow, for families to try to redress that balance.

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She said: “My pain is the same pain as any other mother who has lost a child.

“Why should my pain be minimised because my daughter made a choice to take drugs that night. That’s a big hurdle for the families who come in here.”

Michelle, says she had an intuition that her daughter would die young after she confided that she had suffered sexual abuse.

Her daughter gave evidence for four days at the High Court in Glasgow but the verdict was not proven, which Michelle says tore the family apart.

She said: “I phoned emergency social work and reported it immediately.

“It had gone on from when she was two years old. My mother knew it was happening. They are both dead now.

“She was 13 when she gave evidence. That was the beginning of the end.

“I knew from the age of 12 that she was going to die.

“I don’t know how, I just had a feeling. I knew she wouldn’t be an adult. I had a sense. She said, ‘mum I’m never going to be a big lady. I'll never be happy in this world but I know that I will in the next.'

“I could feel her dying every day. I buried her in my head for four years.”

Michelle says her daughter begged to be placed in a secure unit for her own safety, telling her, ‘I need locked up, I can’t stop.’

She said: “It went to the Children’s Panel who said it should happen as well as a safeguarder, a social worker, and psychologist but the decision went to a higher level of social work, a screening group and they decided that she should be managed in the community.

"She became a prostitute, not to fund anything but because that’s all she thought she was good for.

“She had met a girl that night and went back to a flat. I believe she was injected by the girl because she was injected into her right arm and she was right handed.

“It took 12 hours for her to die and she died with strangers.

“The police came to my door to tell me that she had been found dead.

“She had only tried drugs twice to my mind.

“It was just her time to go and came as no surprise, I just expect it to be drugs. I thought she was going to be murdered.

“She was the first child to die in those circumstances so her death was very public.

“I believed in the Children’s Panel doing the right thing and they did do the right thing. It was overturned by people in the blink of an eye who had never met my daughter.

“There was no justice. It devastated our family.”

Figures show more than twice as many people are dying from drug use in Scotland than a decade ago. A total of 867 people in Scotland died after using illegal or prescription drugs in 2016, 23% more than a year earlier, and 106% more than in 2006, figures from National Records of Scotland show. Heroin and opioids were implicated in 88% of those deaths.

Michelle says she is comforted by the knowledge that her last words to her daughter were meaningful.

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She said: “I got a good send-off. I told her I loved her and she said she loved me and I told her to keep safe.

“A lot of the families who come here don’t get that. They have been split up, they have been arguing.”

Michelle, 52, moved the family (she has three other daughters) from the East End of Glasgow to Mansewood for a fresh start after her daughters death.

She sought help from FASS after suffering a mental breakdown and now works for the charity, which provides bereavement support to families and has reached the grand final of the Evening Times Community Champion Awards, which are taking place on November 29.

She said: “It takes a lot of courage to ask for help and I truly understand what they are going through.

“We call it disenfranchised bereavement because it’s generally not supported in the community or society.

“It’s changed me as a mother and a human being. I try my very best not to get angry and I’ve processed my grief but it doesn’t end.

“She was very caring. She had wanted to be a nurse. She loved old people and animals.

“It’s coming up to Christmas and that’s a difficult time.

“People say, ‘well they aren’t in pain anymore’ but we would have our children back in a heartbeat.”

A memorial service will be held on Thursday, November 23 at 7.30pm in St Alphonsus Church for families affected by drug or alcohol death..

If you have been affected by any of the issues raised, contact FASS on 0141 420 2050 or go to www.fassglasgow.org