Rachel Whitear

Rachel Jayne Whitear

Following Whitear's death, her parents authorised the publication of a police photograph of their daughter's flaccid and discoloured body as she was discovered clutching a syringe inside a rented bedsit approximately two days after her death. Her death and the publication of official police photographs of her body also led to a nationwide anti-drug campaign in Britain involving a 22-minute documentary titled Rachel's Story which focuses upon her life, her potential, her struggles with heroin addiction, and ultimate overdose. The particular focus of the broadcasting of this documentary was nationwide secondary schools.

The nationwide anti-drug campaign following Whitear's death has been compared to the anti-ecstasy campaigns undertaken after the 1995 deaths of English teenager Leah Betts and Australian schoolgirl Anna Wood.

Early life Rachel Jayne Whitear was born in Weymouth, Dorset, on 6 February 1979, the younger of two children born into a middle-class household. She was raised in Withington, Herefordshire, where her family relocated in 1980.

Whitear obtained 10 GCSE passes in 1995. She was a pianist and a football fan.

Teenage years Recreational drug usage Whitear began using cannabis and ecstasy at the age of 14. According to a friend named Polly North, Whitear first began smoking cannabis, before progressing to occasionally taking ecstasy, largely as a means of garnering acceptance and popularity from her peers. Nonetheless, her occasional teenage recreational drug use did not affect her studies, and her parents were initially unaware of her use of narcotics.

Qualifications and A-Levels Following the completion of her secondary school education at Aylestone School, Whitear enrolled at Hereford Sixth Form College, where she gained two A-levels in psychology and communication studies. Five of the six universities to which she then applied to continue her studies accepted her request. Several months later, the father of a friend of Fitzgerald's held a confidential talk with Whitear's parents in which he informed them their daughter had confided in him she was "using heroin". Whitear was confronted about her heroin usage, but insisted she only used the drug from "time to time" in episodes she termed "slipping up".

By mid-1998, Whitear's parents had noted marked changes in their daughter's personality: she had changed from a pleasant, outgoing and exuberant young woman into an irritable, insecure and unreliable individual. —that their relationship was effectively over. In May, she secretly moved into a rented room in a small, three-bedroom terrace house at 4 Pound Street, Exmouth. On Tuesday 9 May, she left Fitzgerald a note, telling him that she needed her own space "uninfluenced by anyone, to develop a new life in." She is believed to have died the following day. She is believed to have died while in the company of Fitzgerald, who would confess years later to having given Whitear the fatal dosage of heroin, and to have attempted to "clean up the scene" after she had overdosed on the drug.

At the time of Whitear's death, she was actively seeking employment, had been engaging with drug counsellors and seeking medical treatment in efforts to defeat her drug addiction.

Whitear's body was later buried in Withington, Herefordshire.

Police investigation The initial police investigation into Whitear's death was criticised for their failure to observe correct procedures, and the conclusions of the investigation—which had ruled out any form of foul play—were questioned. Fingerprints were not taken from the bedsit where Whitear had died until two weeks after police were first called to the scene and officers from the Devon and Cornwall Police force originally investigated her death without conducting a post-mortem examination upon her body. Two men—one of whom was Luke Fitzgerald—were arrested in connection with her death. However, the Crown Prosecution Service did not have sufficient evidence to pursue manslaughter charges, and both were released without charge.

A toxicology report upon Whitear's body revealed that the level of heroin in her bloodstream was 0.05 micrograms per millilitre; approximately one third of the 0.15 μg/ml generally considered to be a fatal dosage. As sufficient toxicological testing had not been conducted during the original police investigation, Whitear's mother decided her daughter's body should be exhumed in order that adequate post-mortem tests could be conducted.

Exhumation A second—more thorough—investigation into Whitear's death was announced in February 2004. This investigation was conducted by Wiltshire Police. On 23 March, Whitear's body was exhumed and a post-mortem conducted. The results of the inquiry were presented to Doctor Elizabeth Earland, the coroner for Exeter.

Second inquest In June 2005, Earland decided against holding a fresh inquiry into Whitear's death. However, the Independent Police Complaints Commission and Wiltshire Police appealed to the High Court, prompting a fresh inquest in October 2006. This inquest was held at Devon County Hall in September 2007, and was presided by coroner Ian Arrow. The inquest heard evidence of "multiple failures" by Devon and Cornwall Police in their initial inquest into Whitear's death, and that the pathologist had chosen not to conduct a post-mortem on Whitear's body due to incorrect concerns she may have been HIV-positive.

Drug awareness campaign Almost two years after Whitear's death, her parents consented to the usage of images of her body as discovered by her landlord in a nationwide anti-drug usage campaign. Two of the initiatives for her parents' decision were the desire to "make people think" about the dangers of Class A drugs, and to challenge stereotypes about drug abusers. Her parents and siblings also participated in a 22-minute documentary focusing on the life and death of Whitear named Rachel's Story, released shortly after the images of her body were released to the media.

The images and interviews within Rachel's Story illustrate the life of a normal, content and promising everyday girl, her struggles with her addiction, and the effect her drug usage had upon herself and her family. The documentary also contains the images of her body in death. The overall message conveyed is that even occasional hard drug usage could result in a similar fate to anyone.

In March 2002, Whitear's stepfather, Michael Holcroft, would elaborate on these decisions: "If we can save just one child, then we'll have succeeded."

Art controversy A painting of Whitear by artist Stella Vine, depicting Whitear dressed in a school uniform and with blood dripping from her mouth, drew condemnation from Whitear's parents in 2004 when the press reported the painting was to be included in an exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery. Reportedly, Whitear's mother and stepfather were "appalled" at the decision. However, the painting was not withdrawn from the exhibition.

Vine refused to apologise for painting the portrait, stating she had been inspired to create the artwork after researching Whitear's life and death and being unable to "get Rachel's image out of [my] head", adding she "should think that Rachel's family will believe that I gratuitously exploited her image", but that this was not her intention.