Parents campaigning over their daughter’s death from online ‘diet drugs’ have overturned a ruling she killed herself.
Their victory, aided by the Daily Mail, came with a groundbreaking decision by judges to simply rewrite the findings of a previous inquest, without the need for a fresh hearing.
Justice for others wronged by coroners’ findings should now be easier.
Beth Shipsey, 21, died eight years ago, after she went online to buy lethal pesticide ‘DNP’, advertised as a ‘fat burning’ product.
In 2019, her father Doug, 59, travelled to the Ukraine, accompanied by the Mail, to confront dealer Andrei Shepelev, extracting a dramatic confession. But Shepelev is yet to be prosecuted – and Beth’s father and mother Carole remained upset at a coroner’s 2018 ruling she committed suicide.
Now after a legal challenge at their own expense, the High Court has ordered any reference to suicide be stripped from the record of the inquest findings.
The judgment also features prominent reference to Beth’s parents’ claim she was unlawfully killed by the deadly drugs sold by Shepelev – with him named.
The Mail’s assistance in both identifying then confronting Shepelev is also recorded.
Extraordinarily, if the judges had instead decided a fresh inquest should be held – as is usual – Mr Shipsey could have had to return to war-torn Ukraine to personally serve legal papers on the diet drugs dealer, warning him.
Worcester businessman Mr Shipsey’s bags were already packed. But last night Mr Shipsey, who had brought his case against the senior coroner for Worcestershire, said: ‘We have been vindicated by this decision to strike from the record any reference to suicide as a cause of Beth’s death.
‘Our claim she was unlawfully killed by a pesticide “diet drug” is in the judgment – and the Daily Mail was stood beside me in Ukraine when dealer Shepelev admitted supplying the drugs.
‘I’m disappointed our fight for justice has taken eight years, with a terrible toll on our family.
‘Our Beth should never have been killed by a poison.
‘But we have not only identified the dealer, we’ve shown that West Mercia Police should have taken action, that the inquest findings were wrong – and two years ago we got the Government to belatedly classify DNP as a poison.’
The grim tale of danger online began when Beth paid £156 over the internet for 24 DNP ‘diet pills’, and they were delivered by post hidden in a DVD case.
It proved fatal for Beth after she took as little as a single pill. According to her father there have been more than 30 other victims.
Mr Shipsey’s dogged research led to him confronting Shepelev in his grimy Soviet flat-cum-drug-factory 1,500 miles away in western Ukraine.
Mr Shipsey coolly held up a picture of Beth as he told dealer Shepelev his drugs killed his daughter. Shepelev answered: ‘I’m sorry, but I just wanted to make some money. If I knew your daughter would die I would never sell her anything.’
At the High Court, Judge Lady Justice Macur said of the Shipseys: ‘We do hope they will finally be able to focus their grief on their daughter and their loss.’