THE natural father of tragic schoolgirl Amber Peat was subjected to 'vile abuse' by her stepdad who told him he was a "mere sperm donor."

Adrian Cook said he tried to contact Amber’s mum, Kelly Peat, following the 13-year-old’s disappearance after only discovering she was missing on Facebook.

He hadn’t seen her for more than two years after the family moved home without telling him.

But when Mr Cook discovered Amber had vanished on social media and called a number on her missing persons poster, he claimed he got hold of stepdad Danny Peat who told him: “She is not your f****** daughter.

"She wants nothing to do with you. You are nothing but a sperm donor.”

Amber who stormed out of her home in Mansfield, Notts, in May 2015 after being ordered to clean out a cool box. She was found hanged in a hedgerow three days later.

A inquest into her death has heard claims the teenager was being "emotionally abused" at home and subjected to a series of draconian punishments – including being told to wash every pot in the kitchen - for "undesirable behaviour".

Mr Cook gave evidence to the Nottingham hearing on its ninth day after deciding to attend in person.

It was originally only intended a statement from him would be read.

He told coroner Laurinda Bower how he and Kelly met around 2000 and had two children – Amber and a sibling, who can’t be named – before splitting on Christmas Eve 2012, when he moved out of the family home in Derbys.

She is not your f****** daughter. She wants nothing to do with you. You are nothing but a sperm donor.

Mr Cook said he last saw his children in early 2013, when Amber was 10, and took them for a meal in a pub. He claimed she was "happy and cheerful" – until he said he had to take her home.

Asked by Ms Bower why that was the final time he saw them, Mr Cook replied: “My shifts were all over the place.

“I tried to ring Kelly and said I would be off this week, and Kelly said I could not see them at the drop of a hat.

“I would ring and it would be, ‘we are going here’, or ‘we are going there’.

“Every time I phoned her it would be ‘inconvenient’. There would be ‘family business’ to see to, or ‘we are taking them here, or there’.

“The last time was a heated discussion. It was getting to the point where you are beaten down by it. I wanted to see the children.”

DESPERATE DAD
Mr Cook said that during their last conversation, Kelly told him: “You just can’t see them when you want to.”

The inquest heard he considered talking to a solicitor, but didn’t feel he "had a leg to stand on".

At some point around March 2013, he went to their home – but found it was empty.

Mr Cook said: “I went to a friends’ house on the estate, but they said that one morning they woke up and they had upped and gone. I had no idea where they’d gone.”

He added the next contact he had with the Peats was on the day after Amber disappeared.

Mr Cook told the hearing: “I found out in Facebook so I tried to contact Kelly with the number off the missing person posters.

“I got vile abuse off Danny – ‘she is not your f****** daughter, she wants nothing to do with you, you are nothing but a sperm donor.

“I phoned back again and spoke to Danny’s mum. I didn’t get much information. I was in deep shock about it.”

He added he didn’t know about any issues surrounding his daughter that the inquest had heard about, including her running away from home previously and problems at school.

His mum Jennifer Lancaster – Amber’s grandmother – told the hearing her granddaughter was a "lovely, sweet, lovable child" who "liked to cuddle and play silly girly things like dressing up, and with her make-up bag".

Mrs Lancaster said she saw Amber "quite frequently" when she was young – but when her son and Kelly split up she only saw her "two or three" times before her death.

One of the occasions was Valentines’ Day in 2013, when Danny wanted to cook Kelly a "romantic meal" and the children went to stay with her for the weekend.

But Mrs Lancaster said Amber was "weepy" because she had overheard a conversation between Kelly and her mum, Dianne Gillibrand, in which they had said she "wouldn’t want them".

Mrs Lancaster said: “I told them I would always want them. How can you not want two little children like that, that give you so much pleasure?

“It struck me as odd.”

Mrs Lancaster next saw the young siblings on Mother’s Day 2013, but they couldn’t stop for long because Kelly was waiting in her car outside. She gave them a pair of charm bracelets, and expected to see them again before she went into hospital that April for a knee operation – but never did.

She told the hearing: “I got a message from Kelly to say they loved the bracelets, and that was it.

“I bought them Easter eggs and sent a message to see if they would be coming for them. And I wanted to get Amber a birthday present because I was going in hospital. But the message (back) was, ‘don’t know, not sure’. That was it.”

Mrs Lancaster added that she went to the family home in a bid to see them – but found they had moved.

When she contacted Kelly to ask for the new address – only to be told: “I am not comfortable with you having it.”

She said: “I thought, ‘this is really strange’, but that is the way it was.”

Mrs Lancaster found out Amber had gone missing through her sister, and "panicked". She said she had no concerns about her granddaughter’s behaviour, and what had happened "came as a shock".

Referring to the Peats, she said: “They trust you with their kids and then stop you seeing them, and the next thing you know she is missing.

“It’s horrible, it really is horrible.

The inquest continues.