Drowned schoolgirl Shukri Abdi was told by a child who was with her shortly before her death: “If you don’t get into the water I’m going to kill you,” an inquest heard on Monday.
Shukri, 12, drowned in the River Irwell in Bury in June 2019. A group of children, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was with her at the river in the period before she died.
The foster carer of “child one” told an inquest in Heywood that the child had recounted threatening to kill Shukri if she did not get into the water as they walked towards the river along with “child two.”
The carer said she kept daily logs about “child one” and had passed this information on to her social worker, who had asked her to pass it onto the police.
The foster carer said that “child one” had brought “child two” and Shukri home for dinner and that all three children had then changed out of their school uniforms and gone out. She said that the three were laughing and joking together at her home.
Shukri’s mother, Zamzam Arab Ture, had earlier told the inquest that her daughter was scared of water and had never swum before moving to the UK.
Ture said that Shukri’s teachers at Broad Oak high school in Bury described her as “helpful and happy” but also told her that there had been incidents where Shukri had been subjected to stone throwing and writing on her bag.
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She added that her daughter usually came home from school between 3.15pm and 3.45pm, depending on whether or not she had an after-school activity such as athletics or cooking. When she was not home by 3.45pm, Ture began to look for her. She said that although Shukri had a mobile phone she had left it at home that day.
Ture returned to school but did not find her there so after feeding her younger children and taking them to the local mosque she looked for Shukri at a friend’s and then at a relative’s.
“I was running around at that time, I didn’t know what to do,” Ture told senior coroner for Manchester North, Joanne Kearsley.
The court was told by Shukri’s family’s solicitor, Attiq Malik, that she, child one and child two had been caught shoplifting in Primark earlier that day.
Ture told the court police came to the family home at 1am to break the news of Shukri’s death.
Shukri came to the UK in with her mother and four siblings after they fled conflict in Somalia.
Previously her cousin Mustaf Omar Mohamed said her death was not an accident. He claimed she was being bullied, but her school, Broad Oak Sports College has said they were not aware of any bullying.
Greater Manchester Police said there were no suspicious circumstances surrounding the child’s death. An inquiry by the police watchdog the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) into the way GMP handled the investigation is ongoing.
The case continues.
