London Evening Standard/London
A university lecturer who allowed an unsupervised party at his house where a 15-year-old schoolgirl died after an ecstasy overdose will not face a manslaughter charge, an inquest heard yesterday.
Isobel Reilly, 15, found the drugs hidden in Brian Dodgeon’s Kensington home in west London in April 2011.
After taking two tablets, the teenager collapsed and died in hospital after a heart attack.
The inquest into her death was halted last year when potentially incriminating evidence about the academic’s drugs stash, which could have led to a manslaughter charge, came to light.
Coroner Dr Fiona Wilcox stopped proceedings and ordered a transcript of the hearing to be sent to the Crown Prosecution Service.
But yesterday at Westminster coroner’s court she confirmed the CPS had decided not to bring any further prosecution.
She said: “It has decided there are no further prosecutions that can be brought.”
Dodgeon, 62, had already admitted four charges of possessing drugs including ecstasy, LSD and ketamine at Isleworth crown court in December 2011. He received an eight-month sentence, suspended for two years.
The research fellow at the University of London’s Institute of Education, and his partner, Angela Hadjipateras, allowed about 30 teenagers to have a party at their house while they socialised in Hastings 60 miles away.
They had asked family friend Camilla Mujica, who lived opposite, to be on standby in case anything happened. Four of the children swallowed ecstasy tablets they found in Dodgeon’s bedroom.
The court previously heard that Isobel, from Acton, had suffered an adverse reaction to the drugs but had urged the others not to call an ambulance because she was afraid of getting into trouble.