Mum 'not happy' with police and demands answers over probe into 'beautiful' Leigh Park daughter's death
A devastated mum whose daughter died mysteriously in a “terrible accident” when she fell in a multi-storey car park has said she will take up her concerns with the Police and Crime Commissioner.
Leigh Park mother-of-one Jamie Smith, 23, was deemed to have died accidentally following an inquest into her death at Portsmouth Coroner’s Court, as previously reported.
Following the inquest just over a year after Jamie’s tragic death, her mum Julie Stephenson has now said: “I'm going to go to the Police Commissioner, I'm not happy with the police."
“Beautiful" Jamie was found “lifeless” with serious injuries by Crasswell Street car park in Buckingham Street, near Cascades Shopping Centre, around 4am on November 23 last year before later dying of her injuries. She fell backwards from a wall in the car park before hitting her head resulting in catastrophic injuries which led to her death.
A murder investigation was launched by Hampshire police which led to a 24-year-old man being arrested on suspicion of murder before he was cleared from the probe. The force subsequently filed the investigation subject to further information coming to light.
Since Jamie’s death just over a year ago, her devastated family have raised questions over what happened to the “loving” and “kind” mum who they believe was spiked by a mystery male who has never been located and quizzed by police.
Jamie, who was found to have class B drug ketamine and alcohol in her system, ended up at strip club Wiggle in Surrey Street. She left the club shortly after 2am with the man she had been seen “kissing” leaving shortly afterwards.
Ms Stephenson said the man in Wiggle had “left 30 seconds after her” and questioned why police had not released an appeal with his picture to the public. “He needs to be questioned, he was the last person to see her alive,” she told the inquest.
But acting detective sergeant Mathew Egginton said: “He's not a suspect, we can't release his photograph, it's against his human rights.”
The detective said "nothing has turned up", in their searches for him, before adding: "From a police perspective, and this is very difficult for the family to hear, he was a witness."
Meanwhile, coroner Nicholas Walker said it was impossible for him to say the “unknown male” did anything wrong. "I make no finding at all about whether that person did anything wrong but it is a shame that I have not been able to hear from that person,” he said.
"But the shame I feel is nothing in comparison to what the family must feel as they would have wanted to ask him questions. I do not make any criticism of the police at all."
He said Jamie had entered the car park alone and was not with anyone when she fell from the wall. “She sat at the top of the wall, she was there for a few moments on her own and very sadly, almost slowly, she seemed to slip from the wall and fell backwards with her head hitting the floor,” Mr Walker said. “That is a significant drop and certainly led to an injury that led her to die.”
Following the inquest, Ms Stephenson has now said she will take her concerns over the police investigation to the Police and Crime Commissioner.
She said: "No way did she take (ketamine) herself, there's no way. She's a scaredy-cat. I think they [police] should have tried harder to find him [the man with Jamie in Wiggles].
"This bloke was a complete stranger to her. We don't know if it was him that spiked her, but he might know the answer to that.
"There needed to be more investigation into why she was on the ketamine. I'm going to go to the Police Commissioner, I'm not happy with the police."