Inquest says Megan‘may have been spiked’ at festival
T TRAGIC teenager Megan Bell, who died at the T in The Park music festival, c could have been spiked, an inquest fo found.
The 17-year-old former St Anthony’s s schoolgirl died at the festival on July 9 la last year with more than three times the le lethal amount of MDMA in her system.
After questions from her family, Senio ior Assistant Coroner Crispin Oliver c concluded that Megan, from Seaham, d died a drugs-related death and said the te teenager could have been spiked.
Despite Det Insp David Pinkey from Police Scotland saying there was no evidence to suggest she had taken the d drugs involuntarily, her family voiced th their belief she had been spiked.
Following the inquest on Friday, Megan’s dad Chris said the family were still devastated by his daughter’s death a and urged parents not the let their child dren go to festivals unaccompanied.
“Don’t do it, don’t take the drugs, lo look at our Megan, remember her face Seaham teenager Megan Bell and her name, don’t take drugs they can kill you,” he warned
Megan’s mum Lisa Bell and grandfather Eddie Bell were also at the inquest and during the hearing they questioned the police’s claim that she had taken drugs in the past. Grandad Eddie said: “She was the mother hen of her group, she didn’t suffer fools gladly so we believe she was spiked and didn’t know what was happening.”
Officers seized Megan’s phone and found messages to her friends and a drug dealer organising to buy pills to take to the festival.
Friends initially denied it but then admitted their part in it to police, the inquest heard.
Mr Oliver concluded: “Megan Bell consumed MDMA while attending the T In The Park festival on July 7 and 8. It cannot be concluded that she took drugs voluntarily. She may have been spiked.”
Addressing Megan’s family, Mr Oliver added: “You have obviously lost a very, very precious young girl.
“She was only 17 and was living a normal social life and has essentially walked into her death.”
The dealer who sold drugs to the teen is still at large, despite police tracking him down, the inquest heard.
Scottish Police tracked down the North East dealer who sold her ‘orange penguin’ ecstasy tablets in the Northumbria Police area with the hope of charging him with culpable homicide.
However Detective Inspector was told by a senior judge in Scotland that the dealer’s case would be in the Northumbria Police’s jurisdiction.
Matters were complicated further by evidence from friends who told police that Megan had taken powder or pills from a ‘dark-haired dark-eyed man’ in the ‘slam tent’– a high energy dance venue in the festival grounds so it is unclear which batch of drugs killed her.
“I suspect it was a bit of both,” Det Insp Pinkey said. He told the court that the force’s major investigations unit had been called to the festival after Megan’s death and the death of Jim Richardson from Scotland who had also taken MDMA.