A GRIEVING mother has written a story explaining the ‘truth’ about what happened to her little girl.

Freya Thorpe died in September 2019 while climbing a tree close to her home in Upper Heyford, near Bicester.

She had been playing with a friend on the afternoon of the Sunday and was seen on CCTV parking her scooter, wearing her pink unicorn helmet for safety, and walking towards the tree where she was found.

At the time of her inquest Oxfordshire coroner Darren Salter said although no-one saw what happened next, it is likely that she slipped while climbing the tree.

The strap of her helmet became caught in a branch and she was tragically hanged. The tree has since been cut down and destroyed.

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The four-year-old became a big sister just 10 days before her death, with her parents welcoming twin babies into the world.

Elise Thorpe has now said she feels ‘it’s time the world knew the true facts’ about the day that ‘destroyed’ their lives ‘beyond words’.

She explained: “It was a normal Sunday – we were on cloud nine after the long-awaited arrival and difficult pregnancy of my twins Kiera and Zack. A brother and sister that Freya had awaited so patiently for nine long and difficult months to become a big sister.

“In the early afternoon daddy had to go off to collect the special milk from Boots Pharmacy in Cowley for the twins as they were allergic to cows milk (too small and tiny to process the milk).”

She then said Freya had been invited to a house a ‘10 second’ walk away for a play date, explaining that the ‘quiet cul-de-sac’ is full of ‘lots of parents’ who ‘confidently let their children out to play’.

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But on that fateful day Freya had left the friends house without Mrs Thorpe knowing.

She said: “I had a gut feeling I wanted her home. Shortly after, I saw an ambulance at the end of the road – I panicked, at the time not knowing why I was panicking. I called my husband to say I was going to get her back from the house behind. He said ‘no I’m five minutes away, stay with the babies’. I saw his car go past and not return from the little cul-de-sac, I knew something was wrong.”

She recalled seeing him run back with a fireman. She grabbed her twins and ran, despite only being days out of surgery, to a cordoned area swarmed with emergency services working on Freya.

The couple waited in intensive care at the John Radcliffe Hospital for two days, only to be told she could not be saved.

She said: “I never stepped foot inside my home again. This is something I also lost and miss to this day…my home.

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“Had I not given birth only 10 days before we would have taken our lives in the hospital that night, without a shadow of a doubt.” “We have had so much support over the last 18 months and we can’t tell you all how much that’s helped us through and for that I can never thank everyone enough for the support, kind words and donations – even from those we’ve never met.

“But we’ve also experienced scrutiny and abuse from people who’ve asked ‘where were the parents? How could they let her out alone? It has caused family rifts from relatives and judgement all because people didn’t know Freya wasn’t in our care when this happened.”

She explained the feeling of living out of a suitcase having to read the important inquest papers days before the questions were answered.

If you need to talk please call Samaritans at 116 123.