Inquest held into death of Ipswich 25-year-old mechanic

Gemima Christodoulou-Peace was found dead in her home in Ipswich on July 31 last year.

The "lovely and bubbly" woman was found after police had been contacted to perform a welfare check on her.

On Tuesday, Suffolk Coroners' Court continued the inquest into her death, hearing evidence from a Home Office pathologist, GP doctor, mental health assessor and toxicologist, as well as statements from family members and those who knew her.

Miss Christodoulou-Peace was a budding mechanic, once beating 10,000 people to an award in 2016 when she was an apprentice.

The court heard how Miss Christodoulou-Peace was raised by her older brother, Mert Zabci, and her grandmother after her father didn't want any involvement.

Her brother, said: "She was a great kid. She was never naughty."

Picture of Gemima Christodoulou-Peace in 2016 when she was at One Sixth Form College training to become a mechanic (Image: Newsquest)

Social services took her, however, and she was placed into the foster system, going to live with the Suleyman family when she was seven.

Her foster father, Serkan, said: "She came to us fostered but became part of our family.

"I left the home when she was 11 after my marriage ended and even though this meant I wasn't her foster parent, I wanted her to be part of the family and would do anything for her."

Her foster sister, Yazmina, said in her statement: "She was loved as if she was my parents' blood. I still love her as if she was my own."

Miss Christodoulou-Peace was placed in a children's social care system in 2002.

Mr Nigel Parsley, senior coroner for Suffolk, said: "It would be fair for me to say she had a very, very difficult childhood.

"It would have impacted on her mental health as she became an adult."

The court heard how she had taken an overdose on three separate occasions in an attempt to take her life, and she suffered regularly from depression and anxiety, being diagnosed with borderline personality disorder.

Miss Christodoulou-Peace had gone to see her GP over several meetings for a variety of reasons, being prescribed a variety of medications.

One of these was montelukast, a drug which helps with allergies but one of the very rare side effects include suicidal thoughts.

When seeing her GP, Dr Pinak Roy at Orchard Medical Practice, she would tell him that she was suffering from anxiety and depression, with the GP being aware of her previous suicide attempts.

She once told Dr Roy her anxiety was "through the roof".

He referred her to a mental health team at Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust, with the contact going through to the access and assessment team (AAT).

This team receives referrals from primary care services, who assess a patient either in person or over the phone, with many happening over the phone, as in Miss Christodoulou-Peace's case.

She spoke to mental health practitioner Tafadzwa Chikenema, with Miss Christodoulou-Peace saying she was feeling "isolated and hopeless" and she was restricting her food intake and having suicidal thoughts.

The AAT ranks a patient in a RAG system - either red, amber or green - to be contacted by a community team.

Miss Christodoulou-Peace's case was given an amber rating, due to not having immediate plans to take her life.

However, these meetings are not recorded, and it is the judgement of one person to decide which category they fall under. This conversation happened on July 25, 2023, six days before Miss Christodoulou-Peace's body was found.

The post-mortem examination was completed by the Home Office, who found that she had 1.2mg of ketamine in her system - however, this is not a toxic amount.

This figure might also not be correct, due to a post-mortem redistribution which can sometimes happen with drugs, where drugs move to various parts of the body giving the illusion there was more or less in a patient's body when they were alive, the court was told.

The post-mortem also found that there was no natural disease present, no injuries and no physical signs of a third party involvement.

The inquest is to continue with more evidence on Wednesday to be given before the coroner gives his conclusion.