The heartbroken mum of a teen who died on a family holiday has welcomed a high court decision to overturn an initial verdict of “misadventure” in her daughter’s death.
Nora Quoirin - who had a learning disability - vanished from her room at a rain forest holiday resort in Malaysia in August 2019 on the first night of a family holiday with her parents and two siblings.
The 15-year-old’s body was found beside a stream about two kilometres away after a 10 day search operation.
A verdict of misadventure was made in January by a coroner indicating Nora’s death was accidental rather than a crime and that no one else was involved.
But on Wednesday a high court judge replaced the verdict with an open ruling, saying there was no credible evidence to support any other verdict.
Nora’s mother Meabh, who is from Belfast, welcomed the high court ruling and said that an element of justice has been served.
She told RTE: “The judge was very articulate and deliberate in his proceedings this morning, and he explained why there was overwhelming evidence to suggest that it would have been fairly difficult if not highly improbable to conclude that Nora could have died by misadventure.
“For example, the complexity of the terrain that she would have had to make her way through, how difficult it would have been to get out of the sight of where we were staying.
“Critically for us, he also took the time to recognise who Nora was. He spent time explaining to everyone about how her physical and especially mental and psychological constraints would have made all of those things highly improbable.”
Nora had a condition called holoprosencephaly, where the brain does not develop normally. She had limited verbal communication and could write only a few words.
This, her parents say, means she would never have left their chalet by herself in the middle of the night.
Nora was wearing only underwear when she went missing, but was naked when her body was discovered on a palm oil estate almost two miles from the resort.
Nora’s parents believe their daughter may have been abducted and have battled to uncover the truth about her death.
Meabh said that her family is on a painful journey and that there’s no getting away from the devastation and sadness.
She added: “We have been resolute from the beginning in terms of what we felt would be fair and in terms of the justice that we know Nora deserves. She has always been worth fighting for. She always will be. And we’re really pleased that we’ve got as far as we have today.
“We are determined to fight together as a family, and today is a big day and an important day that will help us on the journey of healing.”
