Police were aggressive in their search for a Bromley teenager who went on the run before plunging to her death from a Woolwich tower block, her mother told an inquest today.
Shanice-Paris Goff, 18, off Beddington Road, St Paul’s Cray fell from the 17th floor of Hastings House, Mulgrave Road, in April 2012.
Her mother Mildred Goff told Southwark Coroner's Court that officers were aggressive when they came to her house looking for Shanice-Paris during her eight months on the run from June 2011.
Mrs Goff said two friends of her daughter had reported that when officers found her at the flats on the day she died, one said 'you're going back to prison for a long time' and was aggressive.
"When they had come to my house, they were being aggressive, because she wasn't there."
Mrs Goff, who said she had not known where her daughter was when she was on the run, wept as she recalled how Shanice-Paris had told her she loved her in a final Facebook message shortly before.
"It was 2.30, I said, 'I'll go to sleep, you should be asleep', she told me she loved me, and that's it."
She had been in a Young Offenders Institution and was released on licence in April 2011 but went AWOL and the Ministry of Justice revoked her licence and issued a custody notification on June 8.
Mrs Goff confirmed that her daughter had behavioural problems at school and a history of robbery.
They were in regular touch when she was on the run and Mrs Goff told her to give herself up but her daughter did not tell her where she was.
"She wouldn't have given it to me because she knows what I'm like, that I would probably have given it to the police," she said.
She agreed that her daughter did not want to go back to prison but said she had never mentioned a desire to end her life.
She had come to ask her for her birth certificate.
Mrs Goff told senior Southwark coroner Dr Andrew Harris and a jury: "She's my child, I've raised my kids to do what's right by the law, and I did did try with my Shanice - I was making her learn to thrive."
Senior forensic practitioner John Hickmott, a crime scene examiner for the Metropolitan Police, confirmed that when he attended the scene he was given a briefing that a female had exited the building by a bedroom window on the 17th floor, and the deceased was found on a grassed area beneath the window.
Dr Harris asked him: "Is it clear, on looking out of the window, that there's no exit?"
The witness replied: "No viable fire exit or exterior walkway."
The coroner asked: "Is it clear there isn't an exit, or is it possible looking at it that one might think there's a safe way out of the building?"
Mr Hickmott said: "There's no safe way out of it."
The inquest, which is expected to last at least seven days, was adjourned until 9.30am tomorrow.
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