A SCHOOLGIRL who “played dead” to scare her siblings was found hanged when the prank went wrong, an inquest heard today.

Diamond Garate, 14, would fake faint and cover herself in “bloody cuts” using ketchup to play games on her brothers and sisters.

Diamond Garate died in a prank gone wrongCredit: Hyde News & Pictures Ltd

On October 17, she tried to “imitate” the death of Korean popstar Sulli, who was found hanged a few days earlier, in another game, the hearing was told.

But tragically the prank went wrong and she was found by her brother at the family home in Slough, Berks.

An inquest at Reading heard how the young boy tickled his sister’s armpits and lightly slapped the back of her head before realising something was wrong.

He told mum Anna Makengo that Diamond was “playing pranks again”.

‘I KNEW IT WASN’T A JOKE’

Anna, who was pregnant at the time, said: “I went to check and I saw her legs hanging and I saw her neck, I knew this was not a joke.”

The inquest was told Diamond enjoyed playing “grisly” pranks on her four siblings.

She had worn a gory mask with a bullet hole in it just two days before her death and pretended to stop breathing.

Anna said: “She would play dead on the floor, pretend to cut herself pouring ketchup on her arms and most recently she used makeup to create black eyes, lumps and cuts – she got her ideas from YouTube.”

Just hours before the Lynch Hill secondary school pupil died, she was her “usual self” watching Korean programmes in her bedroom.

TRAGIC DEATH

The inquest heard how her mum began “screaming inconsolably” as paramedics raced to the house.

Diamond was taken to hospital after suffering a cardiac arrest and a serious brain injury.

She was kept alive artificially for five days but sadly passed away on October 22 from irreversible brain damage.

Her mum said: “Diamond was very bubbly and she enjoyed playing practical jokes.

“I do not think she intended to die, I think she tried to prank her brother, I think it just went wrong.”

Assistant Berkshire coroner Ian Wade QC ruled a verdict of misadventure and said there was “no evidence” she intended to die.

He added: “An unintentionally dreadful outcome of a moment of pranking, play acting or pretending. Diamond, in her exuberance and youth did not contemplate the risk she was running.

“I think something happened that she did not have any control over, I think that she was pretending to look as if she had suffered a hanging.

“I think she was either having a bit of fun in order to amuse or annoy her brothers and sister or she was imitating what had happened to her idol, the Korean celebrity who had done something very similar but for very different reasons.

“She had everything to live for. She had a well-known reputation with pranking, the way in which she liked to prank was grisly and sombre, which probably made it more fun.”

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