High strength ecstasy 'killed student'

Police have warned of the dangers of taking drugs

A 19-year-old female student has died after taking what police said were "exceptionally" potent ecstasy pills.

Lorna Spinks - a first-year sociology undergraduate at Anglia Polytechnic University - died in Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge, on Monday after collapsing in the early hours of Sunday.

Three days earlier, police in Norfolk had warned that "rogue ecstasy" was in circulation in East Anglia.

Ms Spinks took two lime coloured pills marked with a Euro symbol before a night out at The Junction nightclub in Cambridge on Saturday.

[She] was so, so pretty and when she was dying, she looked like a monster who had been run over by a truck

Lorna's mother Elizabeth Spinks

Police are investigating whether her death is connected with that of a young person in Norfolk.

Superintendent Tony Southern, of Cambridgeshire Police, said the pills were "of exceptionally high strength" and warned there could be more in circulation in the area.

"A family's life has been devastated and I cannot stress enough the dangers of taking ecstasy or any other illegal drugs," he said.

'Her heart gave out'

Ms Spinks' parents, Alan and Elizabeth, who live in France, were at their daughter's bedside when she died.

Mrs Spinks said: "[She] was so, so pretty and when she was dying, she looked like a monster who had been run over by a truck.

"All her organs had been affected. She had been bleeding from everywhere. She couldn't do anything on her own, and eventually her heart gave out."

Students and staff at Ms Spinks' university are being offered counselling, a spokesman said.

A man who was being questioned by detectives investigating Ms Spinks' death has been charged with supplying ecstasy.

But police said Aaron Strange, of Gwydir Street, Cambridge, had not been charged with supplying the drug to Ms Spinks.

He is due to appear before magistrates in Cambridge on Friday.

A second man has been released without charge pending further inquiries, said police.

Drug deaths 'increasing'

The deaths of three women in their 20s in North Wales are not being linked to the deaths in Norfolk and Cambridge.

A spokesman for North Wales Police said the women, all in their 20s, had "links with the illegal drugs fraternity" but were not thought to have died after taking ecstasy.

He said officers were not yet certain what drugs they had taken although it was thought that the substance could be heroin.

A recent study by the Alcohol and Health Research Centre suggested teenagers from the UK were more likely than most of their European counterparts to have taken drugs, drunk alcohol or smoked.

The findings, from a survey by the Alcohol and Health Research Centre, fuel the debate over the "culture" of drinking, smoking and taking drugs in this country.

The number of people whose death was linked to the abuse of drugs has increased sharply, according to the latest official figures.

In 1999, 26 people died after taking ecstasy.

Perhaps the most high profile ecstasy victim was Leah Betts of Latchingdon, Essex who died in November 1995 after taking the drug at her 18th birthday party.