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Elisha Gault’s mother has shared an emotive post about her daughter’s struggle

Published 16:45 18 Apr 2018 BST

Jade Hayden

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Elisha Gault's mother has shared an emotive post about her daughter's struggle.

The body of the 14-year-old Tipperary girl was discovered last month along the edge of the River Suir. She had been missing for eight days. Earlier today, Elisha's mother Grainne shared an emotive post online about her daughter's "struggle" and her changing behaviour in the last years of her life. On Facebook, she wrote:

"Elisha Gault is my 3rd born daughter, who was born 12/4/2003. She was a funny kid, always up to mischief, she was so friendly, she would come in from the cul d sac she grew up in, telling me about all the new friends she had made, all the neighbours knew her by name because she always had a smile and a bit of chat for everyone, young and old. "Without knowing why, Elisha began to struggle from 2012, she withdrew and her behaviour changed and we became increasingly concerned. Myself and her father were extremely active in her life even though we split in 2010, we had a great co-parenting model and Elisha was very close to her father and adored him.

"After a few years of trying to understand why Elisha had been acting out, she finally disclosed that in 2012, she was sexually abused by a person who was known to her and in a position of trust. She was 1 of 5 victims at the hands of the same man."

Grainne went on to say that in May of last year, Elisha was cyberbullied, leading to her "locking herself in our bathroom at home, placing herself in the airing cupboard, consuming paracetamol and bleach in an attempt to end her suffering." The family then presented to St Josephs Hospital, Clonmel. Grainne said that the staff were "fantastic" and made sure that they had their first appointment with the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) in June of 2017. "From this point," she continued, "we were let down as a family."

"After 9 extremely tough months on trying to cope with caring for a child post suicide attempt and giving her reasons to live and value herself once again, Elisha, aged just 14yo, left our home on 17th March 2018 and was never seen alive again. "As a family we are devastated by the loss of Elisha but we will now fight to change the course of Victim support services, CAMHS and campaigning to implement a Self Care Curriculum for Primary and Post primary students to learn better coping skills and develop a better empathy and conflict resolution strategy that we hope will help them through their schooling years but see them through their adult years and hopefully in turn reduce the number of suicides in Ireland Young and Old that we all have to live with today."

Grainne will be appearing on TV3's The Pat Kenny Show tonight at 10pm to discuss Elisha's story.

In her post, she said she made this decision because "it will benefit each and every one of us and our future generations." "This one is for you baby girl," she said. "You were so caring in nature and hated to see anybody hurting and even through your own plight you still tried to be a fun and friendly influence for those around you, who are missing you greatly." The Pat Kenny Show is on TV3 tonight at 10pm.

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Elisha Gault's mother has shared an emotive post about her daughter's struggle.

"Elisha Gault is my 3rd born daughter, who was born 12/4/2003. She was a funny kid, always up to mischief, she was so friendly, she would come in from the cul d sac she grew up in, telling me about all the new friends she had made, all the neighbours knew her by name because she always had a smile and a bit of chat for everyone, young and old. "Without knowing why, Elisha began to struggle from 2012, she withdrew and her behaviour changed and we became increasingly concerned. Myself and her father were extremely active in her life even though we split in 2010, we had a great co-parenting model and Elisha was very close to her father and adored him.

"After a few years of trying to understand why Elisha had been acting out, she finally disclosed that in 2012, she was sexually abused by a person who was known to her and in a position of trust. She was 1 of 5 victims at the hands of the same man."

"After 9 extremely tough months on trying to cope with caring for a child post suicide attempt and giving her reasons to live and value herself once again, Elisha, aged just 14yo, left our home on 17th March 2018 and was never seen alive again. "As a family we are devastated by the loss of Elisha but we will now fight to change the course of Victim support services, CAMHS and campaigning to implement a Self Care Curriculum for Primary and Post primary students to learn better coping skills and develop a better empathy and conflict resolution strategy that we hope will help them through their schooling years but see them through their adult years and hopefully in turn reduce the number of suicides in Ireland Young and Old that we all have to live with today."

Grainne will be appearing on TV3's The Pat Kenny Show tonight at 10pm to discuss Elisha's story.