Jessica Hannah inquest: Yorkshire schoolgirl, 14, died after taking £20 MDMA tablet 'the size of a 1p piece' at her friend's house

Jessica Hannah, 14, was found ‘fitting’ by her best friend’s mother at a house on Stanley Street in Scarborough on May 20, 2020, during lockdown.

An inquest held at North Yorkshire Coroner’s Court on Tuesday heard that Jessica, who went to George Pindar School but had transferred to a pupil referral unit, died in hospital after she had spent £20 buying the drug from a street dealer.

Although she had consumed no alcohol and had only small amounts of cannabis in her system, postmortem tests detected an amount of MDMA – or ecstasy – associated with fatalities. Victims suffer from seizures and low blood glucose levels before experiencing coma and eventually organ failure.

Jessica’s mother, Kirsty Hannah, a healthcare assistant, said that the teenager lived with her, her wife and her two other children in a one-bedroom flat in Scarborough. She was aware her daughter had started using cannabis with her best friend, but did not think she had taken any other drugs.

She said Jessica ‘seemed happy’ when she headed out for a sleepover the day before she died, and was going to try and sell her cracked iPhone for £20.

Mrs Hannah said: “Her death has devastated the family. She was trying things out like any other teenager, but she should never have been given hard drugs at 14.”

A friend, Amy Wainwright, who was with the two girls at the house said that on May 19, Jessica told the friends that she wanted to buy MDMA with her £20 and take it ‘for a laugh’.

The next day, Jessica procured a small plastic bag which Miss Wainwright described as containing ‘white and purple crystals the size of a 1p piece’. As the bag had cost £20, she told Jessica she had been ‘ripped off’.

Jessica and her best friend, who was not named at the hearing due to her age, ‘sniffed and swallowed’ the drug and went to Scarborough seafront, where both girls immediately began to feel extremely hot. Soon, Jessica was unsteady on her feet, slurring her speech and exhibiting risky behaviour.

Her friend’s mother, Michelle Taylor, who said she knew about the cannabis use but did not suspect any harder drugs, found Jessica having a seizure in a bedroom later that afternoon. She was taken to Scarborough Hospital but was already unresponsive and suffered a cardiac arrest.

Detective Sergeant Bentley of North Yorkshire Police gave the inquest a brief update relating to the criminal investigation, which saw two teenage boys arrested. Both are ‘likely to be’ charged with Class A drugs supply offences.

Recording a conclusion of drug-related death, assistant coroner Jonathan Leach said: “There are dangers to illicit drugs when there is no indication of what has been bought on the street. Jessica paid with her life.”