ROSIMEIRI Boxall seeemed "upbeat and postive" before her death, the Old Bailey heard today.

Miss Boxall, of Battery Road, Thamesmead, was found beneath an open window after falling from a building in Coleraine Road, Blackheath, on May 17 last year.

Oluwakemi Ajose, aged 19, of Floyd Road, Charlton, and a 15-year-old girl from Belvedere, who cannot be named for legal reasons, have pleaded not guilty to manslaughter.

In a statement read out in court, the Rev Simon Boxall described how he and his wife had adopted Miss Boxall in 1991 when they lived in Brazil.

He said her mother had been a chronic alcoholic who had been unable to cope with her daughter and abandoned the child in a home.

After the family returned to the UK in 2005 to live in Thamesmead, Miss Boxall started attending Plumstead Manor School.

She studied two NVQs but was unable to complete the work and left school in March 2007.

Mr Boxall said: "Her behaviour began to deteriorate.

"She just wanted to do her own thing and not abide by our family rules."

In August 2007 she left home and her contact with the family became "sporadic".

But before her death Miss Boxall had phoned the family to say she was living in a flat with friends.

Mr Boxall added: "She seemed very upbeat and hopeful about things."

But the court also heard how on November 12, 2007, Miss Boxall was admitted to Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Woolwich having taken an overdose of paracetamol after an argument with her boyfriend.

She told doctors she had also threatened to throw herself out of a window.

Meanwhile, the jury heard today that before the victim's death, the 15-year-old defendant and Miss Boxall had argued over a boy they had met the previous evening.

In a police interview, Ajose said her co-defendant came running downstairs and tried to "escape" after Miss Boxall fell.

The defendant said the 15-year-old seemed "scared and angry".

Ajose said: "She just kept saying 'Kemi, I didn't do it. I didn't do it.'"

The trial continues.