AMBITIOUS GIRL BECOMES DRUG STATISTIC

WITH the tree still cheerfully lit and festive decorations adorning her
comfortable terraced home, Marie Kirk struggles to comprehend how her
pretty, ambitious daughter could be dead.

Lanarkshire girl Kerry-Ann would have been 16 in May, but following a
suspected methadone overdose at a boyfriend's party on Christmas Day she
lost her life.

"If she did take anything it was either put in a drink without her knowledge
- - or it was a one-off experiment. She hated drugs," a pale and tense Mrs
Kirk said yesterday.

"On Christmas morning we all sat round exchanging presents. It was lovely. I
did not dream for a second it would be our last special time together."

The popular schoolgirl, who was working hard at two part-time jobs behind
the counter at a Chinese takeaway and at a Santa's grotto in her local
Coatbridge town centre, was the last person friends and neighbours expected
to see reduced to a drugs statistic.

Animal lover Kerry-Ann had also just finished prelim exams at St Patrick's
High School and had considered applying for the mounted police force.

At the family home in Ailsa Road, Coatbridge, Mrs Kirk, 39, and her partner
Francis Carroll, 41, said the teenager had always appeared vigorously
anti-drugs, was well behaved, and arrived back from nights out when her
family expected her.

When the police arrived to break the news on Boxing Day, the puzzled mother
assumed there must have been a fight at the party thrown by Sean Stack, 17,
in nearby School Street, the night before.

"It was like being in a slow-motion dream. I could not believe what they
were saying," said Mrs Kirk.

"I am not surprised there were drugs at the party - especially nowadays -
but I did not think for a minute my daughter would have been taking
anything. Kerry-Ann spoke out against the whole idea without any prompting
from us. She had a strong opinion on the problem."

The tragedy had followed a cheerful family Christmas lunch at Kerry-Ann's
grandmother's home. The teenager had planned to go to a party later in the
evening and was told by her mother to be back by 11pm.

However, Kerry-Ann telephoned to say she would be staying at a friend's
house after the celebrations.

Mrs Kirk added: "That was obviously a decoy. I think she stayed at the party
long after her friend left. I hadn't particularly wanted her to go but she
was looking forward to it so much."

The alarm was not raised at the School Street venue until around 1pm on
Boxing Day. Speaking quietly, Mrs Kirk said: "It seems as though her body
was lying in a bedroom for a few hours. We couldn't believe it.

"The police said they were questioning people who had been there with her to
discover what exactly happened.

"Kerry-Ann always criticised drug users as 'sad people' and said she didn't
believe in taking drugs. If it emerges that substances were involved in my
daughter's death, then they must have been put in a drink or something. It
is just not like her."

The close-knit family have been thrown into turmoil. Kerry- Ann's older
brother Gary, 17, is being consoled by his grandparents. Her sister Cheryl,
12, broke down on hearing the news.

Two children by Mrs Kirk and her partner Mr Carroll - Jamie, three, and
three-month-old baby Marie-Louise - are being shielded from what has
happened. Kerry-Ann's natural father Gerard died in March this year aged 40
following a long illness - a bereavement the youngster took very hard.

Mrs Kirk said: "She was such a daddy's girl. I noticed the other day she had
placed a photograph of herself in the frame beside a picture of his grave.
They are together now.

"The last time I saw her before she left our house she was looking
beautiful. I am holding on to that image."

Holding baby Marie-Louise, Mr Carroll said he had looked on Kerry-Ann as a
daughter since beginning a relationship with Mrs Kirk eight years ago.

He said: "We are all stunned. She was a wonderful girl, really feisty and
confident, and very good with the younger children."

Meanwhile, Mr Kevin Stack - the father of Kerry-Ann's boyfriend Sean - said
he and his wife, who had supervised the Christmas party, were devastated by
what had happened.

"We were keeping an eye on things and didn't see any drugs or anything like
that," he added.

Mr Stack said that around midnight he told the youngsters it was time to go
home.

"We thought that Kerry-Ann had already gone because we didn't see her. It
was about 1pm the next day that we found her in the bedroom. Someone had
thrown a cover over her and she must have been there all night."