A police force investigating the death of a young mother refused to release CCTV images of a man she was seen kissing hours earlier because it would “breach his human rights”, an inquest has heard.
Jamie Smith, 23, died after falling from a multi-storey car park in Portsmouth, following a night out in November last year.
Traces of the drug ketamine were found in her system and her devastated family believe she may have been spiked by an unidentified man she was spotted with in a club that evening.
Julie Stephenson, Smith’s mother, has urged detectives from Hampshire police to share images of the stranger in the hope of finding out why her daughter died.
But a detective sergeant, who gave evidence at the inquest, said while the force had made efforts to trace the man, they were unable to release CCTV because it would be “against his human rights”.
Smith spent the afternoon before her death visiting a Christmas market. But after meeting an unidentified man, she went to an adult entertainment club in Portsmouth, called Wiggle, where CCTV captured the pair kissing.
Footage of her final moments showed her unsteady on her feet as she left the club alone, followed about 30 seconds later by the unidentified man.
"He’s not a suspect, we can’t release his photograph, it’s against his human rights,” Mr Egginton explained.
The officer said they had analysed the CCTV footage closely to see if there was any evidence of Smith’s drinks being spiked but nothing suspicious had been identified.
He added: “From a police perspective, and this is very difficult for the family to hear, he was a witness.”i mean yeah. the evidence that he is the culprit is pretty loose. releasing his image could ruin his life and cause others to seek retribution. they shouldn’t release any suspects images before they’re convicted.
Unless the person is at large and could strike again, yeah.
And the evidence is very strong
How is the evidence strong? The evidence here that he has anything to do with it is just the family saying “she wouldn’t do that”. It could have been anyone in the club that did it, or it could have been her own drugs.
Even if they did find the guy all the police can do with the zero evidence they currently have is to ask him if he gave it to her. He says no (even if that is a lie) and walks out. The police are well aware that any further investigation is a waste of money and just puts a target on the guys back for potentially no reason.
I think you misread the other commenter who appears to be suggesting that strong evidence should be an additional criteria for release, not that the evidence in this case is strong.
Ahh my bad!