Grace Handling

Grace Handling died after taking ecstasy at a house party in Irvine.

A 19-year-old trainee chef was tried for her culpable homicide but a verdict of not proven was returned.

He had been accused of 'recklessly supplying' her with the ecstasy.

Her post mortem found that she had died from ecstasy intoxication. The pathologist said that she also had a fine linear skull fracture and that he also found traces of cannabis in her system.

It was claimed that the trainee chef had given her the ecstasy at a house party in Irvine on 28 June 2018. He denied culpable homicide although he had admitted to having given her the pills to the police. He said to the police, 'I sold her the pills. No, wait. I didn't sell the pills, I gave her them'.

He admitted having tried CPR on Grace Handling but when the police asked him whether he had called the emergency services he replied, 'No'. The court later heard that he had left Grace Handling unconscious on the floor after she had taken the drug without calling for an ambulance or her parents.

The court heard that she had enough ecstasy in her system to have killed not only a child but also an adult. Before she died, she said that she had taken three blue pills.

The trainee chef said that they both took the drug from a pack of about nine pills that he had had and that they then fell asleep on the floor but that when he woke up she was cold to touch and had stopped breathing. He said, 'She wasn't breathing. She was cold to the touch and her eyes were open'. He said that she had come to his home at about 7pm on 28 June 2018 and that he had given her permission to take a tablet after which they had gone to sleep. He said that he then tried CPR on her and then fled his home and threw away the other ecstasy pills. He added that he had had nine ecstasy pills and that he had taken one but that after he found Grace Handling dead he realised there were only five ecstasy pills left.

When he was questioned over the ecstasy pills, the trainee chef said, 'Yes. I think it was nine, They were on a plastic bag on the windowsill in the living room. She asked if she could take one and I said I might as well take one too. To my knowledge she took one and I took one. She went over to the bag and took two from the bag, took one herself and gave one to me'.

When the trainee chef was asked at the trial, 'Were you aware of Grace taking another two pills?', he replied 'No'.

When he was asked why he didn't call for an ambulance or the police or his parents the trainee chef replied, 'I was just scared'.

When he was asked why he gave Grace Handling the ecstasy pills he said, 'I just felt responsible because they were mine and it was in my house'.

A friend of Grace Handling that spoke to her on the phone at 8pm on 28 June 2018 said that Grace Handling couldn't get any of her words out and was slurring. She said that she later tried sending a text message to Grace Handling but got no reply.

The party had been at the house of the trainee chef and was on the last day of school before the summer holiday.

The court heard that Grace Handling had taken ecstasy before and that her mother and a sister had warned her about the dangers of it. At the trial the trainee chef's defence said that Grace Handling had experimented with drugs in the past and had made her own decision to take them on the night she died.

A friend of the trainee chef said that she received messages from him on 29 June 2018 at 3pm regarding Grace Handling on the Facebook messenger program that said, 'Oft I'm going probably never coming back' and then, 'Killed a c*** man', after which she said he told her that he thought that he had killed somebody. The friend said that when she questioned the trainee chef about that that he said, 'They chocked on their sick in my gaff'.

When the friend said, 'U never killed them then' the trainee chef replied, 'I gave her the pills tho'. He later said, 'I feel asleep and she choked on her whitey. It's all my fault'.

When the friend asked who was dead at his house the trainee chef replied, 'Wee Grace Handling' and then said, 'Tried to give her CPR and everything she actually died in my arms. It's all my fault. I'm surprised I'm no greeting yet. She was just a wee lassie'.

The court then heard that the friend said, 'It wasn't you tho she took it' and then suggested leaving Grace Handling's body outside and calling the police pretending that he found her there.

Grace Handling's father said that Grace Handling had been going through a difficult time at the time after two of her grandparents died and that she had been suffering from anxiety.