We are deeply concerned the GMMH still has not learned

Mum of tragic teenager tells of fears over mental health trust as she vows to fight for justice in wake of inquest into death. Helena Vesty reports

- Helena Vesty

IN late 2020, Charlie Millers stood with his family as he burned a suicide note he'd written earlier that year.

He'd written it while going through an all-too-familiar struggle. His mental health battle was constant and gruelling. But as winter set in, Charlie burned the note. He was ready to move on. He didn't want his life to end.

Charlie, for the first time in months, had hope for his future and his family. He wanted to show his mum a dark chapter in his life had closed.

As he went into hospital for mental health treatment, he spoke to staff of his excitement for Christmas. The 17-year-old from Stretford, who was transgender, looked forward to swapping gifts with his loved ones and spending time with the people he cared about most.

Days later, Charlie was found unconscious in his room at the mental health ward with injuries caused by a ligature. He later died in hospital - on December 7, 2020 from a 'hypoxic brain injury.

More than three years on, an inquest into Charlie's death has concluded, having uncovered failings in his care at a facility where he and two other young people died within nine months. A jury concluded he did not intend to take his own life. A tragic picture was pieced together as the evidence unfolded. A teenager with a bright future was lost, his family destroyed, pleading for answers. Those answers, Charlie's mother Samantha fears, may never come. "We will never know the truth," she said as she came to terms with what happened in court.

'Cheeky and so caring'

Charlie struggled with his mental health from the age of just five, his mum said. But that wasn't his whole story.

People who knew and loved him have reminisced about his enjoyment of books and his studies; his love of dance; his sense of humour; and how he was 'cheeky and so caring.'