Inquest told of fall from hotel window

Press, 21 April 1986, Page 13

Inquest told of fall from hotel window

NZPA special correspondent London A London inquest yesterday recorded a verdict of accidental death after

a Southland woman fell from the fourth-floor window of the hotel where she worked as a chambermaid.

Jillian Walsh, aged 25, died in February after a night of drinking with three friends in a bar and later a disco, the inquest heard. Another worker at London’s Thanet Hotel, Ms Julie Tighe, said Miss Walsh had about seven or eight drinks of white rum before going to the disco. “By this stage she was very drunk. She said she did not feel very well,” she said. At 3 a.m. the four arrived at the hotel where Miss Walsh had been working for about months.

Keith Whittaker told the Court he took a cup of coffee into Miss Walsh’s room, but she said she did not want it They all went to bed and were awakened by the police later who told then Miss Walsh had fallen.

The hotel proprietor, Suzanne Rolls, said that

during the night she heard a loud bang. When she went outside she found Miss Walsh. She was still conscious and asking people to help her, but she died later in hospital from multiple injuries. The Court heard she would not tell the rescue services what had happened to her. Douglas Stotten, a police forensic scientist, said she was probably sitting on the window sill when she fell.

Detective Chief Inspector Graham Clifford said two men had been interviewed by the police, but there was no evidence to connect them with the death. “There had been no property stolen or sexual abuse or assault on the woman. There was no direct motive for her death.” He said she was not suffering from any personal crisis.

“She had been drinking heavily and her only concern was about oversleeping in the morning.”