World News
The Times (London)
July 03, 2006
Mystery of woman's '. ship' death
By Bernard Lagan
An inquest has heard shocking evidence of her date-. drug
humiliation
Photo:
http://images.thetimes.co.uk/TGD/picture/0,,316335,00.jpg
Caption:
Dianne Brimble had been given the 'date-.' drug GHB (NEWSPIX)
SHE was a prudish, 42-year-old mother of three, sailing from Sydney on
a P&O cruise in the Pacific with family and friends.
Dianne Brimble never lived to enjoy a day at sea. She died on the first
night from toxic levels of a so-called date-. drug in the company of
strangers. Among her last words, heard at 3 am by a woman in a cabin
adjoining that of four men, were: "I'm not like that and I don't
do that sort of thing."
P&O's reputation has been tarnished by her death amid evidence that
cruises were promoted to men using lurid postcards that implied that
women wanting . would be waiting for them on its ships. P&O staff
have admitted that couples often had . in the ship's public areas
and ran around naked.
Police have been severely criticised for failing to bring charges
arising from the death of Mrs Brimble, a divorc=E9e from Brisbane. Years
after male DNA was found under her fingernails, a homicide squad has
only now taken over the investigation into her death.
It is has taken Jacqueline Milledge, the coroner, eight weeks to draw
out what was kept from the police for four years.
Mrs Brimble died in 2002 after she had been given toxic amounts of
gamma-hydroxybutyrate, also known as GHB or fantasy in cabin D182 on
the Pacific Sky. Details of Mrs Brimble's humiliating death in the
company of four men she barely knew have emerged in the Coroner's
Court in Sydney.
Australians have been shocked and angered at the testimony of witnesses
at the inquest. These include Leo Silvestri, 39, an unemployed man who
lives with his father in Adelaide, one of eight "persons of
interest" to police still investigating the death.
Mr Silvestri told officers who boarded the Pacific Sky in New Caledonia
that Mrs Brimble's death had ruined his holiday and that he wanted an
apology from P&O. He told police then that she had pressured him for
. after taking the drug. According to police records, he told them:
"I just brushed her off. I didn't want to speak to her. Breath --
yuck. Ugly dog, just go to talk to someone else. Ring the RSPCA ."
Mr Silvestri told the coronial inquest that Mark Wilhelm, another of
the men in his cabin, had given Mrs Brimble the drug, explaining that
it would maker her "ten times hornier" than she had ever been.
In a tearful statement to the security officer of the Pacific Sky, Mr
Wilhelm claimed that he had had . with Mrs Brimble on a top bunk in
the cabin. He said that she then wanted . with Mr Silvestri, who had
taken his usual dose of sleeping pills and was asleep below.
Photographs were taken by one of the men of Mrs Brimble having .. At
about dawn, Mr Silvestri claims, he was awoken by Mr Wilhelm, asking
for his help with a woman who was unconscious on the floor of their
cabin. They put in her the shower to revive her. "She was alive
then," Mr Wilhelm said. But she appeared not to be breathing after
the shower.
The inquest, attended by Mrs Brimble's former husband Mark and eldest
son Sebastian, also heard the testimony of Bobby-Jo Vial, a passenger
who was 19 at the time of the cruise. She said that Mr Wilhelm had
begun a relationship with her on the ship, two days after Mrs Brimble
had died. She told the coroner that another of Mr Wilhelm's
companions had propositioned her mother.
Katherine Taylor, the security manager of the Pacific Sky, told the
coroner last week that it was common to see couples having . in open
spaces on board and that security officers encountered 15 to 20 naked
passengers every night.
Mr Silvestri's companions, including two men who shared his cabin,
are due to testify at the inquest, which continues.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2253721,00.html
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