Mental health services ‘failed’ to manage Sussex TikTok star’s risk in months before she took her own life, inquest hears

Drawing the Horsham inquest to a close, Senior Coroner Penelope Schofield said the 25-year-old died in her Brighton flat on New Year’s Day 2023, after ingesting chemicals purchased for use in her suicide.

Ms Schofield explained that, while taking the substance might have been a ‘risky and impulsive’ decision, the social media star was well aware of the consequences, having purchased the chemicals a month prior to use. “Immy at the time was suffering from a deterioration of her mental health,” she said. “She appears to have made a deliberate decision to end her own life.”

Born in Bognor Regis, Imogen Nunn was described as “beautiful,” “kind” and “generous” by mother Louise, and used her social media following of 780,000, to shed light on life as a deaf young person with mental health problems.

Those self-same mental health problems were listed by the coroner as a secondary cause of death. Immy, diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and mixed personality disorder with emotionally unstable, anxious and dependent traits, was recognised as a high-priority case by the NHS and had a history of self-harm. Today’s inquest concluded that a series of ‘failures’ by professionals responsible for her long-term care contributed to Immy’s eventual death.

A failure to review her care plan following a suicide attempt in October 2022, a failure to introduce proper safeguarding measures after being made aware of Immy’s use of a pro-suicide website and after she purchased chemicals for use in her suicide, as well as the failure to organise a face-to-face risk assessment with Immy on December 30th were all identified as crossroads in the 25 year old’s journey; vital points at which her ultimate fate might have been changed.

For Ms Schofield, these oversights reflect a much broader picture: “This is on a background of systemic, longstanding and well documented challenges in the provision of mental health for deaf patients,” she told the inquest. “With particular emphasis on the national shortage of BSL (British Sign Language) interpreters and the difficulty this presents for patients to be able to communicate their distress when their mental health is deteriorating or they are in crisis.”

The lack of BSL interpreters also impacted the inquest itself, which was remanded for two years because several vital witnesses needed BSL interpreters in order to properly testify. When the case was again postponed earlier this March, Mrs Schofield could only apologise to Immy’s family, calling the delay ‘quite ridiculous’.

With the inquest concluded, Ms Schofield has commissioned four prevention of future death reports to underline systemic issues faced by deaf people in every arena of life: one on the provision of BSL interpreters in healthcare, another to the Department of Education, a third to the Department of Work and Pensions, and a fourth to the Department of Health and Social Care. The court had previously heard that failure to provide proper translation for deaf people could amount to a breach of human rights and Ms Schofield has made clear that Imogen’s case therefore constitutes an ‘arguable breach’ of Article 2, informing her call for further prevention of future death reports.

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