Nóra Quoirin death: Inquest ruling changed to open verdict

A Malaysian judge has overturned an inquest verdict of misadventure in the death of 15-year-old Nóra Quoirin, changing it to an open ruling.

Nóra, from south-west London, was discovered dead in the jungle nine days after she went missing from an eco-resort in Malaysia in August 2019.

The change in verdict suggests there are still questions to be answered in the case, and leaves open the possibility of criminal involvement.

Her family believe she was abducted.

Overturning the original ruling, High Court Judge Azizul Adnan said there was "no creditable evidence to support any other verdict".

"I am of the view the verdict of misadventure ought to be vacated in the interests of justice and substituted as an open verdict," he said.

The initial verdict returned in January had indicated Nóra's death was accidental.

Her family said changing the verdict was "a huge step forward" for them and they were "very pleased by the outcome".

Nóra was born with holoprosencephaly, a disorder which affects brain development.

She and her family had travelled to the Dusun resort in Malaysia on holiday but she disappeared from her room the day after they arrived on 3 August 2019.

Her body was later found in the jungle about 1.6 miles (2.5km) away.

A post-mortem examination found Nóra had died three days before her body was found, due to gastrointestinal bleeding from hunger and stress endured over a prolonged period.

When making the original inquest ruling, the coroner had said there was nobody else involved in Nóra's death.

However, her parents dismissed claims that their daughter could walk off into the jungle alone at night and challenged the ruling.

Her mother Meabh Quoirin, who was from Belfast, previously told the BBC she believed her daughter's body was placed by somebody in the spot where she was found, adding that there were "so many questions... left unanswered".

Overturning the verdict, the High Court judge said it was "not probable" Nóra would have left her chalet alone at night, nor that she could "have navigated by herself the challenging terrain in and around the location where she was eventually found".

He added she was a "shy and retiring child who was uncurious and unadventurous, and who was strongly attached emotionally to her parents", and it was "unlikely" she would go out on her own.

Following his ruling, Judge Adnan told the family: "We have not been able to assist you in finding the answers that you may have been seeking, but I hope that these proceedings would have assisted you in some way on the long road towards healing".

High Court judge Azizul Asmi Adnan explained in detail his reasons for overturning the coroner's verdict, saying he had re-examined all the evidence, and gone back to the resort where Nóra Quoirin went missing.

From what he saw there, he said, he agreed with what Nóra's parents Meabh and Sebastien have said all along: that it was very unlikely that Nóra, a teenager with special needs who was known to be shy, unadventurous and emotionally attached to her parents, would have wandered off in a strange place in the middle of the night.

He said she would have had to climb over a fence, and squeeze between a gap in the gates, then negotiate difficult and steep jungle terrain to reach the spot 2.5km from her room where she was eventually found.

Nor did the judge believe she would have evaded a massive search operation, using sniffer dogs and infrared camera-equipped drones, for the six days until she is believed to have died.

Given all these questions, he said the interests of justice require that he substitute an open verdict.

Her family's lawyers say that while this does not automatically reopen the police investigation into Nóra's death, it does offer a much better starting point to encourage the police to do so.

Reacting to the judge's ruling, Ms Quoirin told the BBC the verdict was what they had wanted and it was "an important step in our healing process".

"We finally feel that someone has listened to us and recognised who Nóra truly was," she said.

Asked what their future plans would be, Ms Quoirin said they would "take some time to think about that and to consider what else we might do. But we already feel this is a huge step forward in our quest for justice".