A British backpacker who died from methanol poisoning in Laos didn’t have her drinks ‘contaminated’ by hostel employees, an inquest has heard.
Simone White, 28, from Orpington, Kent, was considered one of several people taken to hospital while she had been staying in the favored backpacking town of Vang Vieng.
She died within the hospital on November 21, 2024, together with five other individuals who died after consuming free drinks served on the Nana Backpacker Hostel – two Australian teenagers, an American and two Danish tourists.
Assistant coroner for South London, Sebastian Naughton, told South London Coroners’ Court that Australian Federal Police (AFP), who’ve been investigating the case, have ‘advised there isn’t any evidence that the hostel employees were involved in contaminating the drink with methanol’.
Mr Naughton said an investigation into the distillery owner and factory employees involved with the production of the drink continues to be ongoing.
Join for all of the most recent stories
Start your day informed with Metro’s News Updates newsletter or get Breaking News alerts the moment it happens.
‘The investigators have referred charges to prosecutors under the Laos criminal law for various articles for the factory distillery owner, based on test results from various samples from the hostel and the factory and data provided by the AFP,’ he added.
The update got here through an overseas crime agency based in Vietnam and covering Laos.
Mr Naughton first told the hearing he intended to attend for the final result of the investigation into the distillery before holding a full inquest.
Speaking via video link, Sarah Price from the consular assistance department on the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office said she feared no latest information ‘might appear’.
She told the inquest the FCDO has received one type of formal written communication from the Laos authorities in your complete process, and said the federal government is ‘closed and secretive’.
She added: ‘It’s impossible that we’ll get any documentation,’ referencing the distillery case.
Chatting with Neil White, a relative of Ms White, during Monday’s hearing, Mr Naughton acknowledged the ‘frustration from Simone’s family on the delays and lack of an investigation of the criminal process in Laos.’
He said: ‘It is sort of usual on this court for deaths overseas tragically to be delayed pending investigations and sometimes different legal processes going down in other countries.’
Mr Naughton requested an update with any latest information in five months from Ms Price and Detective Sergeant Peter Duke, from the Joint International Crime Centre, who was also on the hearing.
If there may be latest information, one other pre-inquest review hearing will likely be held in six months.
Nonetheless, if there isn’t any latest information, a full inquest will as a substitute be scheduled inside that very same timeframe, when Mr Naughton will call the pathologist who carried out the post-mortem examination of Ms White to reply questions on methanol poisoning.
Get in contact with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this, check our news page.
MORE: Moment man is caught ‘throwing rock at endangered seal’ at popular beach spot
MORE: Mystery after six bodies are present in train carriage in Texas
MORE: ‘Dog attack’ leaves four-year-old and three others in hospital