|
|
 |
| |
Extracts from Salma's diary reveal her state of mind in the days before her death in a car
crash |
Salma revealed her ‘dark secrets’ in diary entry a week before her death
Girl killed in crash wrote: ‘Inside I want to be good but on the outside I want to be bad’
SALMA ElSharkawy, the 12-year-old who died in a car crash after being sent to a care home, wrote in her private diary days before her death: “I need a hug, my heart is broke.”
Extracts from her journal released to the New Journal on Tuesday reveal how she missed her friends and family in Camden after being sent to a home in Buxton, Derbyshire.
In one entry, scrawled in pen the week before the crash, she said: “Inside I want to be good but on the outside I want to be bad. My dark secrets.”
The diary is the most revealing clue her parents have uncovered about her life in care since her tragic death in July.
Former Haverstock School pupil Salma was killed alongside care worker Beth Fitton in a crash on a winding road in Derbyshire in July. She had been sent to live at a specialist centre run by Adventure Care.
Salma’s parents Mary O’Sullivan and Walid ElSharkawy have been fighting to see their daughter’s diary since it was seized following her death.
A police investigation into allegations of abuse apparently made by Salma in sections of her diary has this week drawn a blank.
There is no suggestion that any allegation related to Adventure Care.
On Friday – the same day that Camden’s social services handed over two bags of Salma’s belongings – her parents were told they could pick up her diary from Holborn Police Station.
The pink diary, decorated in silver flowers, was returned with the pages falling out and thinner than her parents believe it should be.
Mr ElSharkawy fears vital pages may have been torn out – a claim strongly denied by Camden Council. He said: “I’m sure the diary has been tampered with. It was collected from the centre on July 4, then handed to the police on August 2. What was it doing [in Camden’s hands] for a whole month?”
In the diary, Salma, who would regularly run away from carers in the hope she would be placed back with her parents, talks of “when I go back to London”.
She wrote: “I want to see my friends and family, I want to go back to school and stop running out of school. I want to get better at maths. I want to stop running away. Get on better with foster carers. Not go in a secure [unit]. I want to go shopping.”
In another entry she said: “Dear diary!! I need help. My tummy is killing me. All I need is a fag. Plz someone help me.”
The diary reveals how she wanted to control her anger “by writing things down”, and how she will be a “lil star” so no one will tell her off. In another entry she refers to herself as a “lil terror”.
“Today I was naughty in the morning but excellent in the afternoon,” Salma wrote. “Beth [Fitton] was really pleased with me.”
Ms O’Sullivan said: “I’m upset social services didn’t listen to her. She always told me she wanted to come home. She said her tummy hurt. I wish I could have comforted her when she was all alone there.
“I wish I’d been allowed to visit her whenever I could instead of when they said I could go. I wish I could have hugged her. Like she said: ‘I want to see my family, I want to see my friends.’ Why was she denied? I think of Salma every day. This will be the first Christmas without her.”
Salma’s death has sparked a series of investigations into the standard of care she was given and the accident itself.
Adventure Care has been summonsed to appear at Chesterfield Magistrates Court next week after police found a fault with the tyres on the car Salma and her carer were travelling in when they died.
A spokeswoman for the Metropolitan Police said: “The Child Abuse Investigation Team has conducted a thorough investigation into allegations of abuse formally received on July 30. No arrests. All lines of inquiry have been exhausted but if any further information is presented to police it will be investigated as appropriate.”
A Camden Council press official said: “As corporate parents, we treat the belongings of all our looked-after children with the utmost care and respect, including Salma’s diary, and we categorically reject any suggestion that we would tamper with it or treat them with anything less that the care they deserve.” |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
