A university student from Northern Ireland who was found dead on her first night at university after taking a lethal combination of ketamine and alcohol was told “This is how we do it in England”, a coroner’s court heard.
Jeni Larmour, 18, from Newtownhamilton, died hours after arriving at Newcastle University in October 2020, having taken ketamine given to her “by another”, in a case of misadventure, a coroner ruled.
The former deputy head girl took the tranquilliser with new flatmate Kavir Kalliecharan, 20, who told the coroner he was referring to the English university experience and had never taken ketamine before.
On the second day of the inquest, Newcastle coroner Karen Dilks said on the balance of probabilities Larmour’s death was unintentional, having heard from Kalliecharan, other student witnesses, a Home Office pathologist and police.
She said Larmour had arrived in Newcastle that day and drunk alcohol with her new flatmates between 5 and 7pm.
Dilks said: “Later that evening, while her judgment was impaired due to alcohol, Jeni took a quantity of ketamine provided for her by another, the combined effects of which led to her death.”
Larmour used her mobile phone to film a Snapchat video showing her in Kalliecharan’s bedroom with white powder on a table, the inquest heard. It was not played in open court but was seen by witnesses.
Andrew Metcalfe, then an acting detective sergeant with Northumbria police, said the video revealed no evidence of Larmour or Kalliecharan coercing or pressuring the other to take drugs.
Giving evidence on Tuesday, Kalliecharan said he was left sick by the drug and vomited for hours before falling asleep, before waking to find Larmour lying lifeless and face down on his bedroom floor at about 5am.
Lucy Backhurst, the university’s academic registrar and director of student services, said the university had a compulsory online induction programme with information about drink and drugs.
But the messaging was not easy, she admitted, and after Larmour’s death there was a backlash when the vice-chancellor emailed students a “stark” warning about the risks of drink and drugs.
Backhurst said: “We got an awful lot of kickback from students [saying], ‘Who do you think you are, telling us what to do?”
She added: “It’s a balance. Students need to be aware of the risks, dangers and signs and we have done an awful lot before 2020 and subsequently to try to raise awareness.”
Dilks urged the university to look again at its induction course on drink and drugs, given that none of the flatmates who gave evidence at the inquest could recall any information from it.
The coroner said the university’s work on drink and drugs advice was continually evolving and it was working well with other organisations on its programme.