Frankie Thomas: Girl who died could 'view anything' on school iPad

The web filter at a school where a girl took her own life after viewing graphic content failed so badly she "could view anything", an inquest heard.

Frankie Thomas died at her home in Witley, Surrey, in September 2018.

The 15-year-old's browsing history revealed she had been accessing self-harm images for months.

The former business manager of Stepping Stones school, in Hindhead, said he believed the filter was working, but later discovered it was not.

Frankie, who had autism, had access to a laptop and iPad at the school, which is attended by children with special educational needs.

Former business manager Isaac Xenitides, who joined four months before her death, told the hearing in Woking he was led to believe a filter for the entire school network was in place and working.

Only later he found out it had "not been set up properly in the first place".

He said he wanted to find out "how a filter could fail so badly", meaning that "children could view anything".

He also told the court the school appeared to be aware of problems with the internet filtering system in the year before Frankie died.

The inquest also heard from David Cross, who took over as the school's network manager in 2019.

He said he also found the internet filter were still not "sufficient" or "adequate".

Music teacher Ben Bastin told the hearing he thought the iPads at the school were subject to filtering software, and he would also try to observe Frankie's use of the devices by "looking over her shoulder".

The court heard if he had known the filtering system did not work on iPads, no student would have been allowed unsupervised access.

Mr Bastin cried in the witness box when he described Frankie as "wonderfully brilliant".

"I really miss her," he added.

The hearing continues.

Follow BBC South East on Facebook, on Twitter, and on Instagram. Send your story ideas to [email protected]