CLUB CULTURE CLAIMS A NEW VICTIM

A TEENAGE girl lost her fight for life yesterday, three days after taking
ecstasy at a friend's birthday party.

The parents of 18-year-old Julia Dawes took the decision to switch her
life-support machine off after a scan confirmed specialists' fears that her
brain was dead.

The fitness instructor's and subsequent death bore similarities to the
circumstances of Leah Betts's death in 1995, who died at her 18th birthday
celebration at the family home.

Miss Betts's father, Paul, who has campaigned to raise drugs awareness last
night renewed his appeal to parents to become fully informed of the
potential risks and speak openly with their children.

"Young people are being sold a wonderful marketing job by the people
peddling them drugs, and unless they are told the other side of the story
they will continue to feel they are immortal.

"It is another unnecessary tragedy and one that we always wished we would
never hear of again," said Mr Betts.

Yesterday Miss Dawes's uncle, Kenneth, spoke of the family's devastation
adding that his brother had warned his niece not to take illegal substances.

Mr Dawes, who said his brother's family had moved to Scotland from Thanet in
Kent, said: "It is absolutely horrendous and a tragedy, She has been
allergic to medicine since she was young and her father always told her
never to take anything. We don't believe she had ever done this before and
that this was the first time she had taken drugs. She more or less died in
her dad's arms on the Sunday morning."

However, a docor said yesterday that there was unlikely to be a connection
between her death and her allergies to other drugs. Dr Brian Keighley, a GP
in Balfron in the Forth Valley, said: "The message is that anyone who is
taking an illicit substance is taking a risk and we know that there have
been a number of deaths, particularly in the rave scene, connected to
ecstasy."

Miss Dawes's uncle added that her family were told on Sunday by specialists
that she was brain dead, but they had kept a constant vigil by her bedside
in the hope that she might recover. Yesterday her devoutly religious
parents, Jacqueline and Alan, accepted that she was dead.

Her boyfriend of four months, Mark Reilly, 21, a British international skier
whom friends believed she was to marry, was also at her bedside.

Miss Dawes was the latest victim of ecstasy which has swept the club scene
in the past decade. There have been at least 60 ecstasy-related deaths in
the UK since 1989.

Yesterday it was claimed that dealers were fighting for the market in Perth
and Tayside where police confirmed that the price of ecstasy had fallen
fromn A315 to A310. Police figures also show seizures of ecstasy rose
significantly in the last 12 months with 871 tablets seized throughout the
force area, approximately 13 per cent up on the previous year's figure of
772.

Phyllis Woodlock, 35, of New Stevenston, Lanarkshire, wept when she learned
that Miss Dawes had died. Last year her son, Andrew Woodlock, 13, became the
youngest ecstasy-related death in Britain. She has been campaigning with Mr
Betts to raise awareness.

She said: "They are dicing with death. They have got to get away from
thinking that it's easy to take a bad tablet."

Miss Dawes is believed to have suffered irreversible brain damage after
taking two tablets during an evening out on Saturday to celebrate the 24th
birthday of Susan McArthur at the Ice Factory nightclub in Perth.

Friends said that Miss Dawes seemed fine when they parted company early on
Sunday morning. However, her parents later found her unconscious at their
home in Redgorton in Perthshre. She was taken to Perth Royal Infirmary where
she died yesterday.

Mr and Mrs Dawes wore too upset to speak of her death, but issued a
statement through their lawyer. It said: "Mr and Mrs Dawes and their son
Jonathan, are deeply grieved as a result of the events of the last few days.
They wish time to be alone as a family, to come to terms with the loss of
Julia."

Miss Dawes was a former pupil of Morrisons Academy in Crieff, which she
attended along with her brother Jonathan, 16. She recently completed an HND
course in business studies at Perth college and had joined the family
business at her parents' Hanover's Health Club.

Yesterday, John Brydon, the owner of The Ice Factory was reported to be on
holiday in Majorca. A spokesman for the nightclub declined to make any
comment on the weekend's events.

The procurator-fiscal at Perth has confirmed that four people have been
arrested and charged with drugs offences and have been released from custody
while police investigations continue.

A spokesman for Tayside Police said a report on the circumstances
surrounding Miss Dawes's death had been sent to the procurator-fiscal.

Checked-by: Melodi Cornett