Hi °C | Lo °C KATY French was at the height of her celebrity when she lost her life.
She was an established photocall and print fashion model making inroads into television.
She was a light that burned brightly but briefly and her final days were a whirl of newspaper interviews and celebrity engagements, including her 24th birthday party at Krystel nightclub.
On Saturday, December 1, 2008, she spent the afternoon filming a pilot for a new TV show with fellow model and friend Andrea Roche at Dundrum Town Centre.
The pair had dinner and then Katy headed to her family home in Stillorgan, Co Dublin, where she spent some time with her mother, Janet, and sister, Jill.
She received a text message from Kieron Ducie asking if she was going out that night and, according to evidence heard in court, she replied at around 11pm asking if she could call to his home at Lambertstown, Kilmessan, Co Meath, to see Ducie's then-partner, Ann Corcoran.
She also asked Ducie if he could arrange some cocaine.
Katy said farewell to her mum and sister and left the house a short time later.
It is the last time she talked to them.
In the meantime, Ducie contacted Russell Memery.
Corcoran also phoned Memery to say that Katy was travelling down the M3 from Dublin and arranged for them to meet on a garage forecourt.
Money
It is around 12.30am on December 2 when Memery got into the model's Range Rover and passed over the cocaine in return for €200.
The money was then passed on to a third party by Memery, according to court evidence.
Katy met Corcoran at Warrenstown and the two travelled on to the house at Lambertstown.
Once at the house, the model consumed a quantity of cocaine and a small volume of alcohol.
The evidence from Corcoran was that the two women had consumed two bottles of champagne, and drank some vodka.
However, Janet French says her daughter only had a small level of blood alcohol when she was admitted to Our Lady's Hospital in Navan hours later – equivalent to half a glass of wine.
Ducie, who had been out in a nightclub in Dublin, arrived back to the house in Kilmessan at around 6.30am.
In his testimony to the court, he said Katy and Corcoran were still up drinking when he arrived home.
The couple put Katy in a downstairs bedroom to sleep at around 8am.
They were only in bed for around 10 to 15 minutes when they heard a loud thump at around 8.30am and went downstairs to investigate.
Prosecuting counsel Jonathan Kilfeather SC stressed they were relying on the "version of events" supplied by Corcoran and Ducie.
Mr Kilfeather said the couple told gardai in statements how they discovered the model had fallen out of bed and was "face down on the floor" and "bouncing up and down off the ground".
After lifting her back into bed, she was "rigid" and her legs were banging off the bar at the end of the bed. Her eyes were "bulging".
Mr Kilfeather said the couple "maintain" they put her into a jeep and drove straight away to hospital.
From evidence, he pointed out the records show a '999' call was made at 10.05am and it was established the jeep arrived at the hospital at 10.12am.
Records
Records show Ducie phoned Memery for two minutes and 20 seconds at 9.59am, then again at 10.04am. There is repeated contact between the pair from 10.30am until 1pm, the court heard.
The medical team enquired if the unresponsive model had taken drugs, which Ducie denies.
Corcoran said she had not seen Ms French consume drugs but she had "gone to the toilet on a number of occasions".
Katy lay in a coma for the next five days until her life-support machine was switched off on December 6.
She died in the arms of her sister Jill and with her parents at her bedside.
Irish Independent
