Jeni Larmour: Newcastle student died after mixing alcohol and drugs

Jeni Larmour had been a deputy head girl at the Royal School Armagh

A student who died within hours of arriving at university had mixed alcohol and ketamine, an inquest heard.

Jeni Larmour, who was 18, died on 3 October 2020 following her first night at Newcastle University where she had been due to study urban planning and architecture.

Emergency services found her lifeless at student accommodation at 05:30.

Miss Larmour, from Newtonhamilton, County Armagh, was a former deputy head girl at the Royal School Armagh.

Pathologist Dr Nigel Cooper told Newcastle Coroner's Court: "She had arrived in Newcastle from Northern Ireland the previous day, she had been with other occupants of her flat on that evening, alcohol had been consumed and there were indications that other substances may have been taken as well."

A toxicology report showed she had a blood alcohol level of 197mg per 100ml, putting her around two-and-a-half times over the legal driving limit (80mg) and indicating "at least a moderate level of intoxication".

Dr Cooper said tests revealed she also had 1.3mg of ketamine per litre of blood, below the level that would usually be considered fatal.

However, he added that both together were likely to have severely depressed her nervous system and he recorded the cause of death as "the effects of a combination of alcohol and ketamine".

Dr Cooper said it was impossible to specify when Miss Larmour died but told the hearing that ketamine - an anaesthetic used in medicine - could cause death "pretty quickly".

Miss Larmour's mother Sandra said Jeni's death had "left a huge void"

One of her flatmates, Kavir Kalliecharan, now 20, told the inquest he had returned to the Park View halls in a taxi with Miss Larmour after she was turned away from a city centre bar because she did not have ID.

While back at the halls, Ms Larmour knocked on his door and offered him ketamine, the court was told.

Kalliecharan said she then made two lines of the powder and used her phone to film a Snapchat video.

He said he sniffed a line by covering a nostril and immediately felt dizzy, went to the toilet to vomit and then passed out.

After waking, he said he found Miss Larmour lying face down on the floor in his room.

"I tried to wake her up, I thought she had passed out, that's when I went to get other members of the flat to help," he told the hearing.

Kalliecharan, from Leeds, was later sentenced to two years on conditional discharge after pleading guilty possessing Class A and Class B drugs.

'A huge loss'

Miss Larmour's mother Sandra has been granted a review of those legal proceedings by the Crown Prosecution Service.

She does not believe her daughter provided the drugs that killed her and has vowed "to clear Jeni's name".

Earlier in the inquest, she paid tribute to her, saying she flourished at school "with her huge personality, confidence and humour".

The inquest heard Miss Larmour was a universally popular A* student, a trained classical singer and had been a leader with her school's cadet force.

Watched by Jeni's father David, Mrs Larmour said their daughter was a "do it now and do it to perfection person".

She added: "I am proud she had a varied experience of life in her limited years.

"It is a huge loss to me, her father David, brother Daniel and our extended family. I also believe it is a huge loss to Newcastle University and the planning world she would have joined."

The inquest continues.