A FAMILY say they feel “let down” by the system after their daughter was found dead in a hotel room near Basingstoke just months after a previous suicide attempt.

Sophie Boothe, of Crowthorne, Berkshire, took her own life at the Tylney Hall Hotel, in Rotherwick, Hook, on June 19, 2019.

An inquest in Basingstoke heard that the 25-year-old had been in touch with mental health practitioners, who classified her as low risk, less than two weeks prior to her death.

And on April 1, while holidaying in Australia, she had been hospitalised after a “serious attempt” on her life that left sectioned in a Sydney hospital.

However, coroner Samantha Marsh said that the 17 pages of notes from that stay were either “not fully reviewed or not fully understood” by NHS staff upon Miss Boothe’s return to the UK.

The deceased’s family paid tribute to their daughter at last week's inquest.

“She was a bright, intelligent, beautiful, high-achieving girl,” her mother said.

“She was academically gifted, she was articulate, she was caring, she was quite amazing, but she did have some demons that she struggled with.”

Her mother continued: “I wish she had better care from mental health services her. All of it has felt like a struggle including today.

“I hope a lesson can be learned because too many other families sit where we are today.”

She added: “I am a little bit ashamed of our mental health service.”

At Basingstoke coroners court on Tuesday, February 18, the inquest heard that Miss Boothe had been “feeling low” and “hopeless” prior to her death.

In March she took a break and visited Australia, but days before she was due to fly home she was hospitalised after an overdose.

She remained in intensive care while surgeries were carried out on her liver and was then ‘scheduled’ – the Australian equivalent of being ‘sectioned’ – by doctors.

A 17-page document was written up, however this was never reviewed or understood by UK mental health professionals, the coroner concluded.

Upon returning to the UK, Miss Boothe was referred to Berkshire Healthcare’s Common Entry Point (CEP) by her GP. But her referral was downgraded from red, meaning urgent, to amber.

She did not speak to a member of CEP until June 7.

After a 45-minute phone conversation, in which she was described as “jovial”, she was deemed to be “in capacity” and a low risk of suicide. It was noted during the inquest that it is normal for such conversations to take place over phone rather than in person and that the CEP is primarily an over-the-phone service.

On June 18 her GP contacted CEP, who agreed to section her depending on the outcome of an appointment between Miss Boothe and her doctor, set for June 19.

However, the deceased took her life before appointment could take place.

Speaking at Tuesday’s inquest, Miss Boothe’s mother criticised the lack of any face-to-face assessment of her daughter’s mental health.

She said: “If you had phoned her up in the last day you would not have said she was suicidal. If you had seen her, she looked fine.

“She needed someone to listen to here and delve a little deeper. But she just gave up.”

In her conclusion, coroner Ms Marsh said: “What I am satisfied as a finding of fact is that the Australian notes were either not fully reviewed or not fully understood.”

She also said she was “not satisfied” that there was a “lack of professional curiosity” displayed by the mental health practitioner who spoke to Miss Boothe over the phone.

She then added: “I do not have any evidence that I could rely on to say that early intervention, whether that be face to face or an earlier phone call, that would have changed the outcome.”

The coroner concluded that Miss Boothe died as a result of suicide.