Neighbours testify at inquest into fatal fall

CHRISTCHURCH: A coroner is probing the circumstances leading up to the death of a woman who fatally fell at a Christchurch flat after a heavy evening drinking wine.

Kimberley Grace Williams (38) had been drinking at a friend’s flat on the night of April 20, 2018, when she hit her head on her back doorstep and died.

Police concluded that her death was not suspicious.

But a neighbour staying at his grandfather’s place, who had been up late playing PlayStation, says he was distressed to hear yelling and voices that night.

Another neighbour at the social housing units who was woken in the night to help call emergency services after Ms Williams fell thought things appeared odd.

An intoxicated friend who had hosted Ms Williams at her flat that night knocked on the neighbour’s door to use his phone to call 111.

She said she had found Ms Williams after going out the front door and around to the back door.

‘‘To me, that sounded very strange. She could have just gone out the back door. It just seemed strange to me, that was all,’’ he told an inquest in Christchurch yesterday.

She also allegedly told him: ‘‘They won’t believe me in court.’’

The woman, who has interim name suppression, also told police who turned up at the scene that they had earlier had ‘‘a wee bit of words’’ but had made up during the night.

At the start of the daylong hearing, coroner David Robinson said it would look at how Ms Williams died, and if anything could be learned from it.

The narrow issues would cover what the cause and circumstances of death were, and whether it was an accidental fall or ‘‘something else occurred to precipitate the fall’’.

Mr Robinson emphasised that his role was to address rumour and speculation so that the cause and circumstances of death were clear.

Forensic pathologist Dr Martin Sage said Ms Williams died of head injuries and bleeding on the brain.

Her bloodalcohol level, the inquest heard, was 443mg per 100ml of blood — nearly nine times the drinkdriving limit.

Detective Constable Fleur Jamieson, who attended the sudden death, said the woman whose flat it was seemed intoxicated.

The woman had told another police officer that Ms Williams had been ‘‘strutting her stuff’’ and when she left the address she was on a high, but it was not clear what she meant by those statements.

Det Const Jamieson said the woman had been reluctant to talk to her and mentioned she had had words with Ms Williams during the evening, but they had made up during the night.

They had both been drunk, she told the inquest, admitting to consuming a lot of alcohol and doing a lot of singing. She thought Ms Williams was going to sleep on her settee in the lounge.

But when she went to the toilet, Ms Williams was not there.

She was worried because she herself had been assaulted near the letterboxes recently and was concerned for Ms Williams’ safety.

She had a cigarette and another glass of wine and thought, ‘‘Oh s..., better go find her’’ and then found her lying at the back doorstep.

The woman initially thought Ms Williams had ‘‘passed out with alcohol poisoning’’.

She tried to phone 111 but her phone was flat. That was when she tried knocking on neighbours’ doors to raise some help.

The woman denied any aggressive physical contact with Ms Williams that night.

At the end of her evidence, the woman spoke directly to Ms Williams’ parents in the courtroom, saying maybe they should not have been drinking together but they were friends and Williams had tried to help her.

‘‘She was a good person to me and I wish it could be different,’’ she said, getting emotional.

‘‘Thank you, we’ve all been through a lot,’’ the grieving father said.

‘‘I’m sorry. I wish there was more I could say,’’ the woman said.

After the witnesses were heard, Mr Robinson adjourned to reserve his findings.

❛ She was a good person to me and I wish it could be different