A Northern Irish student who died hours after arriving at an English university in 2020 had a mixture of alcohol and ketamine in her system, an inquest has heard.
Jeni Larmour, 18, from Newtonhamilton in County Armagh, died on October 3, 2020, following her first night at Newcastle University.
Larmour, who had been planning to study urban planning and architecture, was found lifeless on the floor of student accommodation by emergency services at 5:30 a.m.
Newcastle Coroner Karen Dilks has ruled that Larmour died in a case of misadventure after being given the drug "by another".
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Larmour took the tranquilizer with flatmate Kavin Kalliecharan, 20, who told her "this is how we do it in England". Kalliecharan subsequently told the coroner that he was referring to the English university experience and had never taken the drug before.
Kalliecharan told the October 11 inquest that Larmour supplied him with the drug. He has repeatedly denied supplying ketamine to Larmour.
Dilks told an inquest at Newcastle Coroner's Court that Larmour's death that Larmour's death was unintentional on the balance of probabilities based on interviews with Kalliecharan, other students, a Home Office pathologist, and the police.
"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," Dilks said.
The court heard that Larmour had about two-and-a-half times the legal drink-drive limit of alcohol in her system at the time of her death.
Pathologist Dr. Nigel Cooper said she also had 1.3mg of ketamine per liter of blood, below the level that is usually considered fatal.
However, he said the drug caused Larmour's nervous system to shut down when mixed with the alcohol in her system.
The inquest heard how Larmour and her six flatmates at the Park View student accommodation facility had gone to Points Bar in Newcastle to get to know one another.
Larmour, however, had forgotten her student identification and returned to the flat with Kalliecharan to get it.
Kalliecharan, who gave several hours' worth of testimony, said he was using the bathroom when Larmour knocked on the door.
"She was holding two bags and said one had ketamine in and offered if I would like to have some," he told the inquest.
"I remember throwing up and then passing out in the bathroom."
Larmour was lying face down on his bedroom floor when he came around at 5 a.m., he told the inquest.
"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.
"I told them we had taken ketamine, I said I thought she was in a 'k-hole' which is passing out from taking ketamine," he said, adding that he learned the expression while at school in Leeds.
Kalliecharan said he felt guilt "in a moral sense" about what happened.
He told the coroner that Larmour had taken some of the drugs initially intended for him, denying that he had given her too much.
Larmour's mother Sandra told the court that her daughter's death has left "a huge void that will never be filled".
She paid tribute to her daughter, who was deputy head girl at the Royal School Armagh, adding that she flourished at school with her "with her huge personality, confidence and humor".
"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."
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