Woman charged as girl's mum issues drugs warning

Caitlin McLaughlin was 16 when she died after attending a music festival in Belfast in 2023

The mother of a young concert-goer who died after taking a cocktail of drugs says her heart has been broken.

Caitlin McLaughlin, 16, from Londonderry, collapsed at the end of last year’s Belsonic music festival in Belfast's Ormeau Park.

On Tuesday, police investigating her death confirmed they had charged a 20-year-old woman with supplying a controlled, class A drug.

The previous day, a coroner found that Caitlin had died after taking ecstasy, cocaine and synthetic amphetamine before and during the concert.

Leanne McLaughlin is warning other young people about experimenting with drugs

The suspect is due to appear before Belfast Magistrates' Court on 10 July.

Caitlin’s mother, Leanne, hopes sharing her daughter's story will help prevent another tragedy.

She said no parent should have to experience what she has over the last year.

“To be honest I feel like my life is over. There are days I don’t want to go on,” she told BBC News NI.

“This wasn’t meant to happen to Caitlin but it can happen to anybody as the coroner expressed to me yesterday.

Caitlin's mum mother said her bedroom remains as it was

Ms Mclaughlin added: “She (the coroner) wanted to make that public, that tells the world something, when a coroner is crying out here with all these deaths, that is all she is seeing ... deaths over drugs”.

Young people experimenting with drugs will often, she said, have no idea what they are actually taking.

“The clear message is don’t do it, just don’t do it,” she said.

“You are not even seeing what ingredients are in drugs here and they are fatal”.

Her daughter's death, she said, had changed her forever.

"It has taken half my memory away, I am not the same person anymore, I know that. It takes a lot for me to go outside the door," Ms McLaughlin said.

'Amazing sister, daughter, cousin, niece'

Earlier Caitlin's uncle, Mo Mahon, said the family wanted to “raise awareness, because nobody knows what they are taking, what is in the drugs”.

“Two ecstasy tablets, going from the inquest, is really what killed Caitlin,” he told BBC Radio Foyle's North West Today programme.

"Nobody knows what is in those tablets."

He added: “She was a young person who went out after her GCSE results, to a concert to have a bit of craic with her friends like any teenager, and experimented with drugs and is no longer with us”.

He described Caitlin as “an amazing sister, daughter, cousin, niece”, adding she was the friend that others confided in.

Caitlin's uncle, Mo Mahon, says the family want to help prevent similar tragedies by raising awareness

She was informed about “drink and drugs”, had conversations with family members and had people to turn to if she had wanted to talk about anything, her uncle said.

At Monday’s inquest, the coroner Anne-Louise Toal said illegal drugs were often mixed with other substances, including rat poison, and even one ecstasy tablet could be enough to kill someone.

Caitlin’s mother told the inquest her daughter’s death had left her with "a life sentence".

“It feels that way for all of us," Mr Mahon said.

Caitlin's mother Leanne (second from right) said her daughter’s death had left her with 'a life sentence'

'Completely devastated'

“Leanne and my brother Seamus, there are no words to describe how they are. They are completely devastated."

The family want to raise awareness and warn other young people about the dangers of experimenting with drugs.

A mural in her memory was unveiled in Derry last year - on what would have been Caitlin’s 17th birthday.

It keeps her memory alive, he said, and allows other young people to learn from her story.

“My advice would be, look at Caitlin, look into her story, look at her face. Look at her family and the devastation and think twice before you do anything,” Mr Mahon said.

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