The First Minister and the leader of the Catholic Church in Scotland have said lessons will be learned from the deaths of two schoolgirls who leapt from the Erskine Bridge.
It has emerged that 15-year-old Neve Lafferty was mourning the death of her boyfriend who died earlier this year. She died on Sunday along with her friend, 14-year-old Georgia Rowe who attended the same residential school.
Neve, from Helensburgh and Georgia, from Hull, met eight weeks ago when they arrived at the Good Shepherd Centre in Bishopton, Renfrewshire, a residential school for girls with emotional, social and behavioural difficulties, located a few miles from Erskine Bridge. The two girls who died were among nine live-in residents at the open unit.
The girls had been on weekend outings with relatives and were seen by staff in their pyjamas going to watch television in the evening. But staff carrying out routine checks noticed they were missing and searched the campus and the immediate vicinity. Shortly afterwards, police called to inform staff of the incident on the bridge.
Locals in Helensburgh spoke of their shock at the death of 15-year-old Neve. She came from the Carmichael area of the town, where she met her boyfriend Johnny McKernan, or Johnny Shield as he was known locally. He died of a methadone overdose eight months ago. She also saw her father stand trial for murder, but he was later cleared.
Georgie came from Hull, but had strong Scottish connections and was a pupil at Notre Dame High School in Glasgow.
Since the deaths, tributes have been paid by family and friends on social network sites, and prominent figures in Scotland have said that lessons must be learned.
First Minister Alex Salmond said: "Proper inquiries will be taking place into what happened, why it happened, could anything have been done to prevent it, are there lessons to be learned."
Cardinal Keith O'Brien added: "I am intensely depressed at what has happened, but we must see a way forward,and ensure that whatever went wrong is corrected, and that we do take steps to rectify anything that is wrong with regards to that particular institution."
