Gardaí to quiz friends on Katy’s last hours

GARDAÍ are expected to question friends and associates of model Katy French over the coming days about her last movements prior to her sudden death.

The 24-year-old was buried in Wicklow yesterday after hundreds of mourners attended her funeral Mass.

Preliminary details on the model’s cause of death are being withheld by gardaí but unconfirmed reports say she died of brain damage after suffering seizures while staying at a friend’s house in Co Meath.

The inquiry is likely to centre on whether cocaine caused the self-confessed user’s death.

A Garda source yesterday confirmed toxicology results on the top model’s cause of death would take considerable time.

An autopsy was recently carried out by state pathologist Marie Cassidy at Our Lady’s Hospital in Navan.

Detectives will focus on the hours leading up to Katy’s collapse at a house in Kilmessan, Co Meath, early on Sunday morning more than a week ago.

It is expected that records of calls from her phone will also be checked to help ascertain who she may have met before she fell fatally ill last week.

Led by Superintendent Michael Devine in Navan, the investigation will focus on how exactly Katy died and whether there were any suspicious or criminal circumstances involved.

A file is being prepared for a coroner’s inquest and, if necessary, will be sent forward to the director of public prosecutions for consideration.

It is thought Katy was socialising in Dublin city centre before visiting her friends in Meath.

Inquiries include whether drugs caused her collapse.

The model admitted recently in an interview to having taken cocaine.

After her collapse, she died at Our Lady’s Hospital in Navan on Thursday with her family by her bedside, after being in a coma for almost five days.

Her death comes amid concern about increased cocaine use in Ireland.

Use of the drug in this country has risen to such an extent that Ireland is now one of the world’s top five nations in terms of increased usage, according to a recent United Nations world drug report.

Friends of Katy yesterday indicated they expected to speak to gardaí over the coming days.

One close source and associate said questions still remained over the events the socialite was involved in the weekend she collapsed.