Ramsbottom: ‘Bubbly and caring’ girl died after motorway bridge fall

Molly Partington died aged 18 on August 17 last year after the incident at a bridge on the M66.

At the time, she was staying at Stubble Bank care home in Ramsbottom, which provides accommodation for people who require nursing or personal care.

On the first day of Molly's inquest at Rochdale Coroners' Court on Monday, her mum Kelly Partington said: “Molly was the life and soul, she was always happy, caring and doted on her siblings.

“Molly had good days and bad days, but she was always there for everyone.

"No matter if she was having a bad day, she always made herself available.

“She was due to start college, she was just a caring young woman.”

Kelly added in her statement that when she was aged 13, Molly started to have good and bad days.

This was triggered by an incident at school when a friend knocked Molly’s glasses of her face for being too loud, Kelly said.

The incident upset Molly and things went downhill from there, the inquest heard.

After the incident, she was still "bubbly" but her parents noticed Molly’s behaviour in school worsened and she skipped lessons and became more withdrawn.

A safeguarding teacher also raised concerns when she noticed what looked like scratches on Molly’s hands. She was taken to her GP surgery but Molly did not disclose anything about them.

Molly did not make the start of Year 9 at school as she had an overdose in the June before she was to start and was admitted to the mental health unit at Fairfield General Hospital, the inquest was told.

She was then transferred to Junction 17 in Prestwich, a care centre for young people, to be closer to home.

Molly never gave any reasons why she overdosed or self-harmed, the inquest was told.

In April 2018, Molly was allowed to go back home and the family went on a three-week holiday to Australia where she had no problems.

But shortly after the holiday, Molly had an overdose in Manchester city centre and was taken to a children's hospital for 10 days before being readmitted to Junction 17.

After being at Junction 17 for around two years, she was moved to the Priory Wellbeing Centre Manchester in March 2020.

Kelly said: “She was still normal Molly, she did have scars and marks on face, and we could see where she pulled her hair out, but around us she was never sad or upset.”

The Priory said Molly could be suffering from PTSD and needed to be in a more secure environment for her own safety.

She was then moved to Cygnet Hospital Bury where she started to improve as she was self-harming less and generally doing much better, the inquest was told.

Cygnet recognised that a hospital environment made Molly worse and she was self-harm free there for 120 days.

Molly received cognitive behavioural therapy in Cygnet and realised she wanted to come home.

In March last year, Molly was moved to Stubble Bank because she went for such a long time incident free, and doctors said she was ready to be placed in a unit a step down from hospital.

Kelly said: “We knew she’d get the care she needed there, she’d be in a home environment where she could cook and clean for herself and they would manage her medication.”

At first Molly was not keen on going to Stubble Bank and said she just wanted to come home, the inquest was told.

She carried out a visit to Stubble Bank on a two-week plan but her self-harm increased again and she said everything was happening too fast.

The plan was changed to six weeks and she became keener to move there after this.

She seemed to settle well and her self-harm was continuing, but at a low level for her, the inquest heard.

In the days leading up to Molly’s death, her family said that she seemed fine, and nothing happened to make them think anything was wrong.

But at 5am on August 17 last year, Kelly woke up to find she had a missed call the previous evening at 11.30pm.

Kelly said Stubble Bank told her that Molly had been taken to hospital, but was not told why.

Kelly said she was not told that Molly had been agitated the day before on August 16 and was taken to hospital with police present and no staff members were with her for this hospital trip.

Dr Mark Richardson Riley, an emergency consultant at Fairfield General, said that Molly arrived by ambulance at 11.28pm and was assessed.

A past medical history record found she had emotionally unstable personality disorder and PTSD among other things.

The family spoke to Molly over Facetime on August 17, 2022 and said she looked upset and like she had not slept.

They told her to go back to sleep and they would call her later, however when they tried to it was too late.

They text her and said they did not get a reply, which was unusual, so they contacted Stubble Bank and the head office but no-one picked up the phone, the inquest was told.

Molly left Stubble Bank at 3.55pm on August 17 and went to a motorway bridge, the inquest was told.

A staff member phoned Molly asking where she was, in which the worker said she replied that she was on the bridge and said, “I need to do this”.

The staff member then dialled 999 immediately.

Staff members said they had no legal framework to stop Molly from going on a walk and they decided not to follow her while she was in a heightened state.

Scott Garritty, an advanced paramedic for North West Ambulance Service, said that he received a call at 4.22pm to the incident of a female in cardiac arrest after jumping off a bridge.

When he arrived, she was already receiving CPR on the hard shoulder.

At 5pm, a decision was made to end resuscitation attempts after Molly had been in cardiac arrest for more than 40 minutes and she was pronounced dead.

Pathologist Dr Emil Salmo carried out a postmortem investigation and found old and new self-harm cuts on her body.

A toxicology report discovered that the normal medication she was prescribed in her blood.

The inquest, before senior coroner Joanne Kearsley, continues.

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