Dark Room

Query prosecution of Miss J. Kingsley/driving

with 150mg per 100ml

Date: 22nd June, 1994

Prom: Sergeant Geoff Halliwell Miss Kingsley was thrown from her vehicle before it impacted against a concrete stanchion in one corner of the airfield. She was unconscious when she was found at 21:45 on Monday, 13th June, by Mr. Andrew Wilson and Miss Jenny Ragg. Miss Kingsley suffered a severe concussion and bruising/laceration of her arms and face when she was thrown from the car. She remained unconscious for three days and was very confused when she finally came round. She has no recollection of the accident and claims not to know why she was at the airfield. Blood samples taken at 00:23 (14.6.94) show 150mg per 100ml. Two empty wine bottles were recovered from the floor of the car when it was examined the following day.

PCs Gregg and Hardy had one brief interview with Miss Kingsley shortly after she regained consciousness, but she was too confused to tell them anything other than that she appeared to believe it was Saturday, 4th June (i.e., some 9 days before the incident on 13-6.94), and that she was on her way from London to Hampshire. Since the interview (5 days) she has remained dazed and uncommunicative and visits have been suspended on the advice of her doctors. They have diagnosed posttraumatic amnesia, following concussion. Her parents report that she spent the week 4th-10th June with them (though Miss Kingsley clearly has no memory of this) before returning to Richmond on the evening of Friday, 10th June, following a telephone call.

They describe her as being in good spirits and looking forward to her forthcoming wedding on 2nd July. She was expected at work on Monday, 13th June, but did not show. She runs her own photographic studio in Pimlico and her employees say they were concerned at her nonappearance. They left several messages on her answering machine on the 13th but received no reply.

Interviews by Richmond police with her neighbors in Glenavon Gdns, Colonel and Mrs. Olancey, reveal that she made an attempt on her life on Sunday, 12th June. Col. Clancey, whose garage adjoins Miss Kingsley's, heard her car engine running with the door closed. When he went to investigate, he found her garage full of fumes and Miss Kingsley half asleep at the wheel. He dragged her outside and revived her, but did not report the incident because Miss Kingsley asked him not to. He and his wife are deeply upset that she has "tried to do it again."

Both Col. and Mrs. Clancey and Mr. and Mrs. Adam Kingsley made reference to a Mr. Leo Wallader, who was until recently Miss Kingsley's iiance. It appears he left 12 Glenavon Gdns on Friday, 10th June, after telling Miss Kingsley he couldn't marry her because he had plans to marry her closest friend, Meg Harris, instead. Mr. Wallader and Ms. Harris are unavailable for interview at the moment. According to Sir Anthony Wallader (father) they are currently traveling in France but plan to return sometime in July.

In view of a recent MOT certificate on Miss Kingsley's vehicle, which tends to rule out malfunction, and the fact that the chances of hitting the concrete stanchion by accident are virtually nil, it seems clear that she drove her car into it deliberately. Therefore, unless she recovers enough of her memory to give an explanation of the events leading up to the incident, Gregg and Hardy incline to the view that this was a second attempt at suicide after a drinking session in her car. Mr. Adam Kingsley, her father, has offered to pay the costs of the emergency services. Meanwhile Miss Kingsley has been transferred to the Nightingale Clinic, where she is receiving treatment from Dr. Alan Protheroe. Mr. Kingsley's solicitor is pressing for a decision on whether or not we intend to proceed against Miss Kingsley. My view is to do nothing in view of her father's willingness to pick up the tab, her disturbed state of mind, and the fact that she chose such a deserted location. Please advise.