Mum Rebecca Dunn reveals ‘biggest mistake’ after daughter Minnie falls to death from sixth-floor balcony

A distraught mum has told of her torment after letting her daughter play on a sixth-floor balcony — where she plunged to her death.

Rebecca Dunn said that she will forever regret giving into her daughter Minnie’s pleas to play outside with a friend.

“I am a sucker for her eyes and ended up giving in and that was the biggest mistake of my life,” she told an inquest this week into her daughter’s death.

Minnie, who lived with her grandmother, was visiting her mum at her flat in Portsmouth in southern England when the horror unfolded in August 2023.

The balcony had a metre-high wall with netting and was cluttered with about eight bin bags and a pouffe.

Ms Dunn had on previous visits let Minnie out on the balcony to paint but was on this occasion reluctant before being talked into it.

A neighbour saw Minnie and another young girl playing on the balcony.

Minnie then stood on something before falling over the balcony, with her friend desperately trying to save her.

“I couldn’t hold on, my hand slipped off as she was moving really fast,” the friend later told police.

Minnie died from multiple injuries.

In a handwritten statement after the inquest, Ms Dunn — who admitted smoking cannabis about an hour before the tragedy — said her daughter was a “happy, lovable, sassy little girl”.

“She was loved by all that met her ... her passing had and continues to have a massive impact on our lives,” she wrote.

“Her smile was just as bright as the Sun. We will have to love you from afar, but that love will never, never stop.”

Hampshire Acting Sen. Coroner Jason Pegg found that Minnie’s death was a “desperately dreadful, tragic accident”.

“I am going to record that Minnie Rae had been playing on the balcony and in that time elevated herself on an object which had been left on the balcony causing Minnie Rae to fall over the balcony wall,” he said.