5 days Ago
The mother of a woman found drowned in a river in Australia is still seeking justice for her daughter, twenty five years after her death. Pat Tompkins from Saltdean is still fighting for her daughter Angela Read, who drowned in the Hastings River, New South Wales, in April 2000. Australian police and pathologists in New South Wales believed the 34-year-old killed herself, but Ms Tompkins believes she was murdered.
READ MORE: Road blocked as emergency services attend incident Ms Tompkins with one of her grandchildren in 1997 (Image: Supplied) She said: "My daughter would have never taken her own life; I am absolutely convinced of this. She had called me only three days before her death saying she was coming to visit me soon and bring my grandchildren with her. “Then she is found drowned in a river.
I do not believe this is the case and neither did the coroner, but no case was opened.” The mother of two went missing on April 5, 2000, from her camper van home in Port Macquarie, 420km north of Sydney, having moved there from England with her husband. Her body was found two days later.
A pathologist who carried out a post-mortem examination concluded there were no suspicious circumstances. Her body was cremated five days after it was found. Angela Read photographed in 1994 After campaigning to get the Australian authorities to hold an inquest into the circumstances of her daughter’s death, in November 2002 the Australian coroner John Abernethy recorded an open verdict, saying it was "highly unlikely" she took her own life or drowned accidentally.
In 2017 Ms Tompkins met with the Australian High Commissioner in London and had been promised that the case will be reinvestigated, but to no avail. Ms Tompkins showed photos of her daughter’s injuries to a pathologist at the Royal Sussex County Hospital who concluded the evidence of finger marks on her neck supported “the theory that she may have been choked or suffocated while being held under the water.” She has since written dozens of letters in chronological order detailing the events preluding her daughter’s death, the inquest hearing and any communication to seek justice thereafter.
She said: “These letters are a story in themselves, every single one I've written. “But I'm not an author, and they don’t flow in the manner a story writer can make them flow. “I'd like someone to write my story.
I have got all the information, all the letters, all the reports from Kirkham who confirmed her injuries, her broken nose.” Angela Read as a child (Image: Supplied) READ MORE: Brighton woman to take part in historic VE Day celebrations Ms Tompkins does not believe her daughter, a lively artist who cherished her two young children Rosabella and Shaun, would have killed herself. She believes her daughter was murdered and has been campaigning for an investigation for a case to be re-opened.
She sent case files to Sussex Police investigator’s in the last five years to see if they can find any lead to re-open the case and fight for her daughter’s justice. The police force concluded that it would be difficult for the case to be re-opened and investigated as murder, based on their limited scope, as it would require to be re-opened by the Australian authorities and for them to find enough evidence to do so. Ms Tompkins explained that as her daughter was cremated, there was no way to re-examine her body for proof of injuries inflicted by a third party.
She said: “I just want the truth to finally come out. "I want justice to come to light." Angela's two children live with her widowed husband in the UK.
.
