Mother of girl, 23, who plunged from city centre automobile park after kissing ‘unidentified’ man blasts police for refusing to launch CCTV over ‘human rights’ breach, inquest hears

Police have refused to release CCTV of a man with a ‘spiked’ woman who plunged to her death from a car park during a night out because it would breach his ‘human rights’.

Jamie Smith, 23, died after falling from a first floor car park in Portsmouth, Hampshire, on the eve of her daughter’s fourth birthday.

Her grieving mother, Julie Stephenson, has appealed to detectives to release footage of a ‘stranger’ she was seen kissing on CCTV, but was never identified.

Ms Stephenson claims her daughter was ‘spiked’ at a strip club before she died.

At the mother-of-one’s inquest, it was heard that Hampshire Constabulary could not release his image to the public because it was ‘against his human rights’.

Ms Stephenson – who attended the inquest in Portsmouth – told the hearing officers did not ‘try hard enough’ to find the man.

‘Beautiful’ Ms Smith fell to her death in the early hours of November 23 last year, with CCTV showing she was alone.

She had been out to visit a Christmas market but ended up meeting the man, who she went to a strip club with and was seen kissing.

It is at the strip club, Wiggle in Portsmouth, that it is believed she ingested ketamine. The class B drug and alcohol was found in her system.

Footage of her final moments shows her ‘unsteady’ on her feet and leaving the club alone – with the male exiting ’30 seconds’ after – before she wandered city streets alone in the early hours of the morning.

She then fell from the first floor of the car park half a mile from the strip club, having perched on a wall and fallen backwards.

Her phone was found down a drain by the club.

The mystery male was never identified as key CCTV at the club was not working, the till was not logging bank cards to help identify customers who made payments, and police could also not find him using specialist facial recognition software.

Ms Smith’s family say she must have been spiked because she was too much of a ‘scaredy-cat’ to take ketamine willingly.

Coroner Nicholas Walker concluded it was a ‘very sad and very tragic accident’, brought on by the combination of ketamine and alcohol.

Ms Stephenson said she will be speaking to the Police and Crime Commissioner over what she believes were failings in the investigation.

At Portsmouth Coroner’s Court, Ms Stephenson said: ‘She’s my daughter and I know she would not have done that just on a Wednesday night.

‘She went to a Christmas market, in a hoodie and trainers. She’s not going to go out and get hammered and do drugs – not when it’s her daughter’s birthday the next day.’

She continued: ‘I’m still not and will never be happy with the way it’s been dealt with.

‘In every crime you read about the person to see them was questioned. I just don’t think he’s been looked for hard enough.’

Ms Smith’s sister, Jodie Quinn, said she had previously taken cocaine with a former partner, but that she would not have taken ketamine.

Giving evidence, Ms Quinn said: ‘She would be too scared. She was scared to eat out of date bread.

‘She wasn’t out that night for a big night out. I thought it was strange that Jamie would go to a dancing strip club as a 23 year old girl.’

Ms Smith visited Gunwharf Quays in Portsmouth for a date with her partner, but following a dispute she made her own way to the Guildhall area of Portsmouth.

Around 11.30pm, she met an ‘unknown male’ who was with two other men. The male and Ms Smith then made their way to Wiggle strip club nearby.

CCTV from inside showed them spending time and drinking together, also kissing.

She made two phone calls to her cousin and sounded ‘intoxicated’ and spoke about her mental health, it was heard.

Though she spent around an hour with the man, CCTV showed she did not spend time with him for the final hour she was at Wiggle and she left alone just after 2am.

She wandered streets alone then was seen on CCTV walking ‘slowly’ up the stairs of a multi-storey car park by a nearby Tesco.

Briefly sitting on a tall wall, alone, CCTV shows Ms Smith fall backwards and to her death. She suffered ‘unsurvivable’ head injuries and was found around 4am, before being pronounced dead in hospital.

Detective Sergeant Matthew Egginton said police could not find the man she was with.

‘We do not know who Jamie was with in Wiggle, it’s a bit unusual’, he told the inquest.

The officer said detectives tried to use facial recognition to find the man and put out a ‘witness appeal’ – but said they could not publish his photo as it was ‘against his human rights’.

‘He’s not a suspect, we can’t release his photograph, it’s against his human rights’, DS Egginton said.

‘Nothing has turned up’, DS Egginton said of their searches for him.

He added: ‘From a police perspective, and this is very difficult for the family to hear, he was witness.’

DS Egginton said police conducted a ‘frame by frame analysis’ of the CCTV inside Wiggles. He said: ‘We zoomed in as much as possible around the male to see if he was doing anything shady, such as spiking Jamie’s drinks. But there was nothing.’

50 officers, including senior detectives, were put on the case in the aftermath of the death, DS Egginton said.

He suggested Ms Smith may have taken the drug thinking it was another drug such as cocaine.

Ms Stephenson, from Petersfield, Hampshire, said her daughter, from Portsmouth, was a ‘very loving, kind person that was there for a friend in need’.

‘She worked hard at being a mum and would ask for help’, she said.

‘She was a beautiful girl who sometimes did not see herself as the rest of the world saw her.’

Concluding, Mr Walker said there was ‘no evidence’ available to say that she was spiked.

He said: ‘The family suggest there are suspicions and they do not accept she would not have taken it herself.

‘I have heard that she was someone that had taken recreational drugs.

‘As a matter of common sense, we heard from the police officer that the point of spiking is to stay with the person that was spiked. The person that was with her did not stay with her.’

Mr Walker ruled out suicide but said the car park was an ‘unusual’ place for someone to be.

‘In my mind, the fact she was there is best understood by the fact she had ketamine and alcohol in her body’, he said.

‘In my view, she made her way to the wall, she sat on it, there was no sudden movement which preceded the fall.

‘It indicates it was most likely an accident, rather than something that was intended by Jamie.

‘She completely miscalculated, or misjudged, due to the ketamine and alcohol. Together, that misjudgement led to her catastrophic and tragic fall.

‘I’m not persuaded this was anything other than a very sad and very tragic accident.’

Mr Walker said it was impossible for him to say the ‘unknown male’ did anything wrong.

Mr Walker said: ‘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.

‘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 delivered a conclusion of accidental death.

Speaking after the inquest, Ms Stephenson said she will take her concerns over the police investigation to the Police and Crime Commissioner.

She said: ‘No way did she take that 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.’