A British property tycoon's daughter died after a drug overdose of heroin in her Paris apartment.
Hannah James, 37, was left traumatised after an accident in 2010 when she hit and killed a 17-year-old cyclist - Joel Semmens. She struggled with depression after the incident and succumbed to alcohol and drugs.
Hannah was driving back home after a client meeting in her black Audi when she hit Joel who was crossing the road in Byfleet, Surrey. Police initially suspected that she was under the influence of alcohol but her blood reports showed no sign of it.
The interior designer was sentenced to 100 hours of work without pay. Her sentence was decided based on the fact that the "Victim was crossing the main road without stopping, on an unlit bike wearing dark clothing and no safety gear," said her father, David, the chairman of a luxury Home Counties property company at Westminster Coroner's Court.
Hannah was hired by her family firm to furnish the multi-million-pound properties. Even though she did not get paid for her work, she got her money from the family trust.
She lived in a house in London that costs £1.2million with her husband. But the couple separated in 2015. After which she moved to Paris to get away from her friends who were also close to her ex-husband.
After she moved to Paris, "She seemed cheerful and happy as she had a new boyfriend. She invited us to see the apartment and we did in March 2017. We noticed she had lost weight and looked withdrawn. We went to a restaurant and she didn't have an appetite," her father said.
He continued, "We thought depression was affecting her as she declined to come to lunch the next day."
Unfortunately, that wasn't the case. Hannah was using drugs and one night she overdosed with heroin mixed with fentanyl. Her boyfriend, John Gladwell, did not hear from her and so when to her place to know if she was doing well.
He broke the door down as no one answered the door. He found Hannah on her bathroom floor on March 31, 2017. On reaching the hospital, doctors announced that she was already dead.
