It emerged in court that the girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, had been taken out of school due to the severity of her mental health problems and was under the care of her local mental health team amid concerns she may be suffering psychosis.
Leeds Crown Court heard how she had talked of her belief that people around her were not human and could be robots controlled by a hostile, higher power. Her barrister said she first reported self-harming at Christmas 2015.
Over the next months she was taken into the care of the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) and, in December 2016, she was prescribed fluoxetine for anxiety and depression as questions were raised over whether she was suffering from psychosis.
Graham Reeds QC, prosecuting, told the court: This was not formally diagnosed but was flagged up for further investigation.
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Marjorie Wallace, chief executive of the mental health charity SANE, said: We trust that the independent inquiry, which must follow this shocking and tragic case, will throw light on whether the young girl who pleaded guilty to manslaughter had been assessed for any risk her disturbed thinking presented, and whether there had been missed opportunities to treat her in a specialist unit.
There have been campaigns in this region involving young people with mental health needs being shunted hundreds of miles to find treatment that have revealed a serious lack of local services.
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