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Parents complained about newspaper’s inquest report

A complaint to the Press Complaints Commission about a newspaper’s report on an inquest into a 16-year-old girl’s death was resolved with the publication of a letter from the girl’s parents.

The letter was published following a complaint to the PCC from the girl’s mum that the report in the Yorkshire Post suggested that 16-year-old Camilla Irvine’s death may have been cannabis related.

Wendy Irvine said the report was misleading and in breached the Editors’ Code of Practice in terms of accuracy and intrusion into grief and shock.

The complaint was resolved when the press watchdog negotiated the publication of a letter from Mrs Irvine and her husband.

Printed under the heading ‘Report of our daughter’s death was misleading’, the letter stated: “The headline represented our daughter as some kind of “cannabis junkie” whose death may have been in some way linked to cannabis.

“Our daughter was a happy, normal, intelligent 16-year-old girl. Milla’s inquest was told that she may have shared some cannabis at a party shortly before her death, but there were absolutely no traces of alcohol or drugs found in any post mortem tests.

“You neglected to mention that the unknown compound that the forensic pathologist referred to in court could have occurred naturally in the body, or have developed in the samples taken at the time of her death.

It was concluded that Milla had most probably died peacefully in her sleep, from the condition described as sudden adult death syndrome.”