A 17-year-old girl who ‘loved life’ started ‘talking to people who weren’t there’ before she died after taking MDMA at a Dreamland drum and bass gig, an inquest has heard. 82 people were found with drugs at the Margate event on June 29, 2024.
It was at this event that Emily Stokes fell ill and was rushed to the Queen Elizabeth Queen Mother Hospital nearby in a “critical” condition before dying of an overdose. Yesterday, an inquest opened into her death at Oakwood House in Maidstone, Kent.
Witnesses, representatives and Emily’s dad were all in attendance. Operations director for Dreamland, Shane Guy, was also quizzed by coroner Catherine Wood about the tragic case. Around 7,000 people were in attendance at the ‘Worried About Henry’ gig. Mr Guy, who served as a Kent Police officer from 2015 to 2022, told the court; “We are an experienced event provider, we knew the event would go to capacity.”
Discussing the event’s security, he explained that those attending had bags searched and were patted down all while walking past drug dogs which had been trained to sniff out illegal substances, reports KentLive. He added: “We are here to provide a safe environment. Within an hour of Emily’s death we had Kent Police on site.”
When police arrived, a major incident was declared, Mr Guy said. He explained: “We had a consultation with [the police]. The risk is that you have 7,000 people. It is that if we continue with the event, the risk is far less than having unhappy people in the streets of Margate.”
A decision was taken for the gig to continue, with Mr Guy telling the coroner that throughout the course of the event 27 people were refused due to lack of ID and 82 people were caught carrying drugs. He said “I don’t know if it’s a good or bad number” but said it was ‘expected’.
According to Mr Guy, the event had a zero tolerance policy toward drugs, and when drugs were found, police were notified, the substances were seized and the individuals found with them were removed from the venue. Emily was seen on CCTV at 1.30pm on June 29 entering the park. At this point, no drugs were found on her during a search by security.
Mr Guy said clips were sent to police after going through “thousands of [pieces of] footage” to find Emily in the crowd. He said some footage simply painted a picture of a girl enjoying music with her friends. However, an image revealed Emily coming out of the toilet, removing an item from her bra, putting something in her mouth and drinking water.
CCTV footage next showed her receiving medical treatment. Mr Guy described the footage saying: “She is then taken by the ambulance service. At that point, I don’t know who Emily is. The next thing I hear is that Emily has passed away.”
According to Mr Guy, the highest risk for drugs at the event surrounded MDMA and Ketamine. The inquest heard that a full risk assessment was carried out before the high risk event. Managing director at Manchett Security Sam Noble, told court: “An MDMA batch laced with fentanyl was going around causing issues in the county in the previous weeks.”
Integrated Medical Services was hired by Dreamland. Sinead Faith-Simms, was the first to initially treat Emily. She told the court: “I was told of a patient feeling faint and dizzy. They had deteriorated when we got there. She was sitting down and ended up standing with her friends holding her up. She told me she had taken two MDMA pills and a few sips of alcohol.”
“At first she was speaking but seemed agitated,” Ms Faith-Simms continued. “She was very shaky. She was physically shaking. I took her into the tent. She was agitated and she was worried about people looking at her. When I got into the tent, I realised this was serious and I needed someone with a higher clinical ability. I went straight into the majors. When she saw the medical equipment, she started to freak out. I hadn’t seen anyone acting like that before”
Ms Faith-Simms said she tried to reassure her as much as she could. Emily had a heart rate of 200bpm, – a normal bpm is between 60 and 100 – while her temperature reached 40.9. Her oxygen saturation was 84 percent which is considered very low. She said: “I encouraged her to drink some water. Her temperature went down very slightly. I tried to calm her and slow her breathing. Nothing really was working.”
Ms Faith-Simms told the hearing: “I ended up leaving because another call came in inside the medical centre and someone else took over. She was still agitated and delirious when I left, but was still vocal. She wasn’t really making much sense. She was talking to people who were not there. Emily required a higher clinical grade than I had. I decided before I left that she needed to go to the hospital.”
IMS hired one private ambulance, the inquest heard. A decision was made to call them to take Emily to hospital, rather than the South East Coast Ambulance Service. Lauren Fuller-Jones, a paramedic working as a technician for IMS at the time, was called by Ms Faith-Simms to look after Emily. She said she “knew I needed to get her hospital” and asked for Kent Central Ambulance Service (KCAS).
She said KCAS told her they were on their way back to the event having already taken another patient to hospital. She added: “I knew the hospital was in close proximity. I believe around five minutes.” But, she said there was a risk the ambulance service “may be diverted” and the KCAS ambulance had “all the same equipment on board”, saying: “It’s hard to say if it would be any different it I called SEACAmb. We may have only been a category two based on the information we gave them, which is an 18 minute response time. I was aware there was only one ambulance. I was told it was on its way back.”
The court heard ambulance arrived just after 4pm. The handover took place at 4.05pm and paramedics left 11 minutes later. Kay Mockford, who was Emily’s social worker from 2021 to 2023 kept in touch with the 17 year-old after she stopped looking after her. Kay told court that Emily was in foster care for a long period until her placement ended due to “problems with drugs and alcohol” from the age of 16.
According to Kay, her foster care was very proactive with Emily, trying to get her to understand the repercussions of drugs and alcohol. Emily was going out with friends and would go back under the influence of alcohol. “Emily did not think she had a problem. We explained to Emily this was unacceptable and offered her help,” she said.
She moved to Kent from London when she was young but when her placement ended, she was told she would be moved back to London. Ms Mockford saw Emily in person every six weeks, and used to spend time with her, saying she “affectionately called her chocolate chops”, adding: “Sometimes we would just sit and talk and put the world to rights.”
Emily had a “hard time” with her move back to Chingford, Waltham Forest, and spent a lot of time with her friends on the phone. At a semi-independent facility, Emily had a 10pm curfew and following the move she did not touch drugs or alcohol for the first week, the court heard. Ms Mockford said: “Emily knew that there would be opportunities to visit friends in Kent. The first carer kept in touch with her as well.”
Ms Mockford said there was a “level of trust” with Emily, who had once been given the chance to travel to Canterbury to see her friends for the day and came back in time. Emily asked if she could go to the gig in Margate, but didn’t give a return time, asking if she could stay the night. It was refused, and Ms Mockford said they didn’t give her train tickets.
“If she told me how she was getting home I wouldn’t have stopped her. We know it was something she really wanted to go to,” Ms Mockford added. The court heard she left the facility in the morning and headed to the gig without telling them. Her former foster care said towards the end of her placement, Emily would tell her she travelled to Ashford but went to Canterbury instead and did not always say where she went.
Emily was allowed to go out as long as she returned before her 10pm curfew. Before leaving court, Ms Mockford said “I had a lovely relationship with Emily. She was a very quirky young lady. [She] never had the same hair colour every time I saw her. She was so artistic and a fantastic baker. She was very funny and clever as well.
“She had a great friendship group that absolutely loved her, and she just loved life. She was a remarkable young lady and is sorely missed.”
The three-day inquest continues.
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