We've been robbed of justice, say parents of heroin overdose girl

12 April 2012

The parents of Rachel Whitear said yesterday that police blunders had robbed them of justice, after a jury failed to determine how their daughter died.

Pauline and Michael Holcroft condemned the 'incompetence' and 'negligence' of the original probe into her death in May 2000.

The inquest they had fought for failed to answer their questions about her final hours.

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Happy days: Parents released this photo of Rachel Whitear yesterday, taken before her slide into drug addiction

At the end of a five-day hearing, a jury ruled yesterday that the former Bath Spa University student and drug addict died of a heroin overdose.

But they could not reach a decision on whether the 21-yearold injected herself with the fatal overdose or whether she was alone in her room at the time.

Yesterday Mrs Holcroft, 57, burst into tears as the inconclusive verdict was read out.

Afterwards, Rachel's stepfather, Mr Holcroft, 59, said: "We have been robbed of justice.

"Rachel has been robbed of justice.

"We will never have any proof but if her death had been properly investigated at the time, there would have been a different verdict and it would have been held in a different court.

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Fighting for justice: Pauline and Michael Holcroft arrive at court

"Now it is too late."

Ever since shocking photographs were published of the student found dead, slumped on the floor with a needle in her hand, the case has remained shrouded in mystery.

A second investigation was launched after her parents complained about the original Devon and Cornwall Police investigation and about the first inquest in 2000, when an open verdict was recorded.

When Wiltshire Police reinvestigatedin 2004, Miss Whitear's body was exhumed and a post-mortem examination was performed.

Last year, the High Court ordered the second inquest after toxicology results raised questions about the level of heroin in Miss Whitear's bloodstream.

Criticism: Rachel's mother, Pauline Holcroft, slammed the way Devon and Cornwall police dealt with her daughter's death

During the hearings, a witness came forward accusing the student's boyfriend, Luke Fitzgerald, of administering the lethal dose then getting his brother, Simon, to move the body, dispose of the syringe and replace it with a clean one.

Luke Fitzgerald, 32, a former heroin addict, has denied any involvement in Miss Whitear's death.

Yesterday Mr and Mrs Holcroft, of Ledbury, Herefordshire, said that they would never know the true circumstances of their daughter's death.

But, they added, they believe she was not alone when she died.

They issued a statement which read: "The police made one massive assumption. They treated Rachel's death very simply as an inconsequential drug-related statistic with an overwhelming emphasis on there being no suspicious circumstances.

"No forensic examination was carried out and an investigation carriedout four years later was sadly too late. We are left to only imagine the beautiful, talented and mature young woman who could have been standing before us today."

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Shocking: The photo that stunned the country showed Rachel in her death position

In a cruel twist for the family, they learned during the inquest that some of Miss Whitear's treasured possessions, including her bible and school reports, and letters she wrote around the time she died, had been kept by the Fitzgerald family.

As the folder of possessions was handed back yesterday by police, Mr Holcroft said: "They had no right to keep them and we cannot imagine why they have done so."

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