Heartbreaking toll of ecstasy: How 16 lives were lost

Isobel Jones-Reilly, 15, from West London, died in 2011 after taking a lethal dose of ecstasy at a party in Kensington. Academic Brian Dodgeon, 61, in whose home the party was being held while he was away, said the drugs, stored in a high cupboard, were for his personal use. He was sentenced to eight months in jail, suspended for two years. Guilt-ridden, he’d tried to kill himself a week after Issy — described by her mother as a ‘lovely, warm, friendly girl’ — died.

Martha Fernback, 15, from Oxford, died in July 2013 after taking MDMA and heading to a park in the city with friends. The drug had a purity level of 91 per cent, compared with the average of 58 per cent. Martha started sweating profusely and collapsed. She was rushed to hospital where she suffered cardiac arrest. In 2014, Alex Williams, 17, pleaded guilty to supplying the drug to a friend of Martha’s. Spared a jail sentence, he was given a three-month curfew and an 18-month youth rehabilitation order, after the judge said she despaired at ‘the folly of youth’.

Daniel Spargo-Mabbs, 16, from Croydon, South London, died in January 2014 after taking MDMA at an illegal rave in West London. Daniel, an A-grade student, sprinkled around half a gramme of powder into 500ml of water and drank it in one go. His temperature soared and he collapsed. Taken to hospital, he died after suffering multiple organ failure. Nicqueel Pitrora, then 19, of Croydon, was jailed for five years for supplying Class A drugs to Daniel and his friends.

Emily Lyon, 17, an A-level student from West London, became ill after taking ecstasy at a music event at the O2 in Greenwich in June 2016 and died in hospital. Emily bought the drug from a fellow student at Esher College, Surrey. Her mother Carol Needham, 50, said: ‘Emily was a lovely, happy person, with hundreds of friends. She was much-loved.’ Luke Villars, 18, of New Malden, was given a one-year suspended sentence earlier this year after pleading guilty to four counts of supplying Class A drugs, including those which led to Emily’s death.

Dione Melville, 15, died after taking ecstasy at a sleepover party with friends, who also became ill from the drug. Dione was pronounced dead after an ambulance crew arrived at the house in East Calder, West Lothian, in April last year. In February, a 15-year-old boy, who had sold them the MDMA, was sentenced to 18 months detention. He’d known the drugs were dodgy because a girl he’d sold one to the week before had also been taken ill. For legal reasons, he cannot be named.

Fifteen-year-old Josh Oliver, from Whitstable, Kent, suffered convulsions and a cardiac arrest after taking ecstasy in December 2014 at his girlfriend’s house. Paramedics were called and he died later in hospital of MDMA poisoning. Jack Pointer, then 19, also from Whitstable, was sentenced to three years in prison after admitting supplying Josh with the Class A drug. Josh’s bereft father, Paul, said: ‘I know my son did a silly thing, but if this lad hadn’t sold drugs to a minor, then Josh might still be with us today.’

Rose Farley, 15, from Liverpool, died at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital after falling ill at a party in June 2012. She told friends she’d taken five MDMA tablets. She had 2.8mg of ecstasy per litre of blood in her system. Anything above 0.1mg is considered fatal. Kieran Gilchrist, 19, of West Derby, was jailed for five years in 2013 after admitting conspiracy to supply MDMA. Judge Alan Conrad told him: ‘Supplying ecstasy is a vile and dangerous trade.’

Joana Burns, 22, died in July this year after taking ecstasy ‘in a one-off final fling’ as she celebrated the end of her maths degree at Sheffield Hallam University. She was left cowering and gibbering after she and some friends smuggled the drug into a student venue inside their socks. She died in hospital in the early hours. A 23-year-old man and a 20-year-old woman were bailed on suspicion of supplying drugs.

Megan Bell, 17, a trainee hairdresser from Seaham, County Durham, died at the T In The Park music event in Scotland in July 2016. Text messages later showed that she and friends had arranged to buy ecstasy tablets, and she told friends at the event that she had ‘taken something’. When she later collapsed, Megan was taken to a temporary hospital facility, where she was given CPR and a shock using a defibrillator, but was pronounced dead. Police arrested three teenagers in connection with the supply of drugs.

Olivia Christopher, 18, died in her sleep after taking ecstasy on the last day of BoomTown Fair Festival, Winchester, in August 2016. The sixth-former from Chesham, Buckinghamshire, had been due to start a degree course at Sheffield Hallam University. She was found dead in their tent by her distraught boyfriend, Dan Holmes. A post mortem showed she had fatal levels of MDMA and sleeping tablets in her bloodstream. It was unclear who sold her the drugs.

Ben Rees, 23, a Swansea University history graduate and aspiring DJ, died in July 2015 after taking ecstasy while spending a weekend clubbing in Berlin with a group of six friends. Ben, from Rhondda Cynon Taff, was taken to Berlin Military Hospital, where he was resuscitated twice before being pronounced dead. He suffered multiple organ failure caused by MDMA toxicity. His parents, Nadia and Huw, said: ‘Ben was a crowd-pleaser and a peacemaker. He had so many attributes.’

Ben Stollery, 18, from New Mills, Derbyshire, is understood to have been a victim of an ecstasy side-effect dubbed ‘Suicide Tuesday’. It is believed that he took MDMA on a Friday night out with pals in March 2015 and was suffering from a comedown early the following week when he was found hanged by a river. Ben, whose father runs a property firm, was an ‘intelligent and articulate’ straight-A pupil who excelled at rugby at Stockport Grammar School.

Lauren Atkinson, 19, a beautician from Ulverston, Cumbria, died after taking ecstasy with girlfriends at an all-night rave in Manchester in December 2016. She was discovered in her room by friends at their rented apartment at 6.30am the next day and pronounced dead at the scene by paramedics. Her devastated father, Nigel, who runs Ulverston Rugby League Club, posted on Facebook at the time: ‘We were blessed to have a daughter who touched so many. The world has lost one amazing girl.’

Tayla Mae Woodard, 20, an aspiring showbusiness writer and student at Bournemouth University, shared half a gram of ecstasy with her boyfriend at a club in London in March 2014. After returning to his home in the early hours, Tayla had a heart attack and died the same morning. A post mortem revealed she had high levels of MDMA in her system — 1.64 mg per litre of blood. She was posthumously awarded a first-class degree in journalism.