A YOUNG woman died in hospital after being found in woodland where, nine years earlier, she had been raped.

Hannah Browning, described by her father as “a happy, energetic person”, had previously been sectioned under the mental health act after self-harming and threatening suicide.

An inquest heard that the 22-year-old walked out a meeting with doctors and social workers on October 10, 2018, telling them she was going to kill herself.

A few hours later, after the Samaritans received a call saying a woman had told them she had a ligature around her neck, police officers found her hanging in Marford quarry, near Wrexham, close to where she lived.

She died in the Maelor Hospital two days later after never regaining consciousness, and in a statement read at the Ruthin hearing today her father, Ross Browning, was critical of the support and treatment she had received.

He said Hannah had never any counselling following the rape, which was investigated by North Wales Police as part of Operation Lenten, an investigation into allegations of sexual exploitation by members of the travelling community.

“They diagnosed her with a personality disorder but ignored the other issues like this one (the rape),” he said.

“We feel overall that Hannah didn’t receive the treatment she should have and there were some very bad decisions made by the Mental Health Team at the time.”

He said that Hannah seemed to have a fixation with the quarry and police officers twice had her sectioned after finding her there.

Hannah, a former pupil of Darland School, Rossett, first disclosed the rape in 2017 to the authorities at Nottingham University where was a student, and the police were informed.

Police Constable Deborah Jenkins, a member of the Operation Lenten investigation team, had spoken quite openly to her about the rape and had shown her the spot in Marford quarry where it had occurred in June, 2009.

The officer said that Hannah co-operated in interviews because “she wanted to get everything dealt with”.

PC Jenkins commented: “It was a privilege to have met her and I only wish there had been a successful outcome.”

Hannah, who had undergone surgery on her back, spent time in the hospital’s Heddfan mental health unit, where she said she felt safer and less likely to harm herself.

The hearing, attended by legal representatives for the Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board and Wrexham County Borough Council, continues.