Gaia: A Death On Dancing Ledge Final Episode airs Thursday 27 July on BBC Three

In the third and final episode of, Gaia: A Death On Dancing Ledge, Zara McDermott learns that Gaia’s alleged attacker made contact with her ten months before Gaia vanished. According to Clara, her older sister, the texts were “inherently threatening” and caused a breakdown in her mental health. Gaia went downhill after her requests for a restraining order were denied.

Gaia was hospitalised and sectioned under the Mental Health Act for her own protection within a month of receiving the texts. Dorset Police at the time dropped the case of Gaia’s alleged rape due to a lack of evidence, but Gaia’s alleged attacker was later incarcerated for other child sex crimes. Gaia’s family claims that the news of his possible release sparked a final crisis, which was exacerbated by the sending of indecent images by an unknown person via social media.

Throughout the episode, key details about Gaia’s final months and days are revealed as the inquest into her death — one of the longest individual inquests in British history — unearths more than 50 missed opportunities in her care and search for her.

In order to piece together what led Gaia to run that day and ultimately to her tragic death on Dancing Ledge, Zara interviews a key independent mental health witness as well as the former Police and Crime Commissioner for Dorset at the time of her death.

When can we see the final episode

The final episode of Gaia: A Death On Dancing Ledge airs Thursday 27 July 2023 at 9.00pm on BBC Three.

Image Credit: Gaia Pope-Sutherland – BBC/Summer Films/Pope-Sutherland family.