A mother’s torture
She describes agony of life without ‘beautiful’ teenager killed by ecstasy
‘I’ll never see her grow up’
THE mother of a teenager who died after taking ecstasy has described the ‘torture’ of losing her ‘beautiful daughter’.
Ellie Knowles, 18, collapsed during a night out at a club and two men have now been jailed for supplying her with the Class A drug.
Jack Malloy, 20, had been with the Northumbria University student and her friends at a house earlier in the day when he contacted 22-year-old Ryan Best and arranged for the drugs to be dropped off.
The group took MDMA at the house in November last year before heading to the Shindig event in Byker, Newcastle.
Miss Knowles, from Doncaster, started to feel unwell and collapsed at around 3am. She later died in hospital.
In a victim impact statement, Natalie Pedgen told Newcastle Crown Court about the ‘insurmountable pain’ at her daughter’s death. The 47-year-old said: ‘I sob, scream and torture myself with the what might have been.
‘My only sanctuary in this whole nightmare is that my last words to her were “I love you my darling” to which she replied “I love you too Mum, forever”.’
Mrs Pegden, an NHS manager, said she had shared a ‘very tight bond’ with her daughter, who was ‘truly my best friend’.
She added: ‘Beautiful on the inside and out, I ache to hear her laugh one more time, to see her face and smell her but I am left with a void no one can fill and an image of a hospital mortuary.
‘Each time I go into her bedroom I pray it’s all been a terrible nightmare and she will still be warm and snuggled up in bed but instead we are left with a room that remains unchanged since her death, clothes and make-up still visible but with no one in there.’
Mrs Pegden, who has a son and two stepchildren, added: ‘What has been taken away from us will never be replaced, I will never watch my daughter grow up, get married and have her own children which was a life we often chatted about.
‘I will never have the planned girlie weekends, shopping trips or any other cherished time nor will I see her blossom into the wonderful woman I know she would have become.’
This week, Best, from Tulip Brae, Northern Ireland, was jailed for four years for supplying class A drugs, while Malloy, from Doncaster, was sentenced to one year in prison.
The Shindig club night has been criticised as ‘the biggest ketamine and MDMA event going’. Shindig Events refused to comment.
After the hearing, Inspector Mal Stratton, of Northumbria Police, said the sentences reflected the seriousness of the offences.
He added: ‘We would urge anyone who involves themselves in this kind of behaviour to look at these jail terms and think twice about getting involved in the supply of Class A drugs.’ An inquest into Miss Knowles’s death was opened in March but adjourned pending the court case. It will now take place next year.