Bridge leap girl 'had been besotted with boyfriend'

A TEENAGE girl who fell to her death from a bridge in an apparent suicide pact was "utterly besotted" with her boyfriend, who had died of a drugs overdose, an inquiry has heard.

Jonny McKernan died in February 2009 - eight months before Niamh Lafferty plunged more than 100ft from the Erskine Bridge to her death in the River Clyde.

Niamh, 15, died with Georgia Rowe, 14, a fellow resident at the Good Shepherd Centre care home in Renfrewshire.

The fatal accident inquiry had previously heard that earlier that year Jonny died of an apparent drug overdose.

But concerns about the relationship and Niamh's safety around Jonny were expressed almost a year before her death, the inquiry at Paisley Sheriff Court was told yesterday.

While social workers and Niamh's mother, Collette By-south, tried to keep Niamh away from Jonny, Niamh's father allowed them to spend time together while she was visiting him at his home in Helensburgh.

Argyll and Bute social worker Sandra Leonard said Niamh had shown her a picture of her boyfriend brandishing a samurai sword on the day she moved to a care home in July 2008.

She also said she had told other girls at the Good Shepherd Centre that Jonny had a gun.

In November 2008, Ms Leonard also raised concerns about "threats Niamh's boyfriend had made to her", adding that "these had been violent", she told the inquiry.

In a record of the meeting read to the inquiry, Ms Leonard noted: "Niamh is utterly besotted with her boyfriend."

She added that she knew Jonny was involved in violence and drugs.

The inquiry continues.