A 17-year-old British drama student was found hanging in her room hours after she confided in her friends that she had been raped at a house party. Megan Younger-Watson was allegedly raped at a party after she spent the evening drinking and taking drugs with friends at a pub.
According to the Ipswich Star, Younger-Watson was "distraught" when she told friends of the attack as they walked home from the party in a flat. The incident happened on February 15, 2019, and has been a subject of inquest for over two years. However, on Tuesday the Suffolk Coroner's Court in Ipswich finally determined that the teen hanged herself and probably was too intoxicated after taking a variety of drugs.
Drugs, Rape and Death
Younger-Watson was found dead the on the morning of February 16 in her room at supported housing accommodation hostel Christchurch House in Ipswich, Suffolk. She had shared her ordeal just a few hours earlier with her friends but even before they could help her she was found dead.
Her mysterious death had been a subject of inquest for two years now. However, Detective Inspector Daniel Connick of Suffolk Police said that the alleged rape had been investigated and a male suspect was identified after the teen's death. He although was never brought to court after the Crown Prosecution Service decided against bringing charges, the hearing was told.
Although the death is shrouded in mystery, the Suffolk County Coroner's Court on Tuesday determined that Younger-Watson had cocaine, Ecstasy, and Xanax in her body when she died. However, she had relatively low levels of alcohol.
Connick said it was "apparent" that Younger-Watson would have been "too intoxicated" to consent to sex.
Dead Under Mysterious Circumstances
Younger-Watson was a drama student at Suffolk New College in Ipswich, and had a history of anxiety and depression and was facing eviction from the Christchurch House hostel at the time of her death. The inquest heard on Tuesday was told that she went to a party in a flat with friends where she was reportedly raped.
CCTV footage showed she was in a corridor in an intoxicated state from where fellow residents of Christchurch House carried her back to the hostel. She was carried upstairs at least twice by the night concierge and was last seen on CCTV at around 8 am entering her partner's room. She reportedly had an argument there. Interestingly, at the time of her death, Younger-Watson was in a same sex relationship.
Later, tests revealed she had taken cocaine, MDMA and Xanax, a drug used to treat anxiety, on the evening of February 15. Suffolk senior coroner Nigel Parsley said she had also witnessed a violent mugging and had intervened to help the victim.
However, following the argument, she calmed down and returned to her room. At around 10 am her friends called police for help after finding her no response from her. Paramedics and police later found her dead inside after breaking the door down and were unable to revive her. The teen's mother, Natashia Younger-Watson, said she felt more could have been done to protect her daughter on the night she did.
