Northern Ireland

Meabh Quoirin: We absolutely believe that someone took Nóra from Malaysian hotel

Meabh Quoirin with her daughter Nóra Quoirin
Meabh Quoirin with her daughter Nóra Quoirin Meabh Quoirin with her daughter Nóra Quoirin

The parents of Nóra Quoirin, the teenager found dead after 10 days missing in the Malaysian jungle while on a family holiday, have called for government support in their appeal for an inquest.

The 15-year-old's French-Irish parents Sebastien and Meabh Quoirin have been pleading for answers ever since her body was discovered 1.6 miles from a holiday resort where the family had been staying in Dusun in August last year.

Inquests are routinely held in the UK if the cause of death is found to be from something other than natural causes.

However, Malaysian authorities classified Nóra's death as "no further action" (NFA), according to charity the Lucie Blackman Trust, which is supporting the London teenager's family.

This means no inquest into Nóra's death will be held.

The Quoirins said they were "shocked" by the decision, particularly considering there remained many unanswered questions around how the vulnerable teenager - born with the brain defect holoprosencephaly - came to leave her room and venture into the jungle, and whether she was alone at the time.

Speaking on Radio 5 Live on Monday, her mother, Meabh, said: "Our respective governments in France and Ireland have given us their commitment to continue to support our request.

"We would really like to call on the British authorities to lend their support to those calls for transparency and for an inquest, so that justice can be done, so that the truth can be obtained.

"We have to get up and fight every day to get answers from Malaysia which feels so unbelievably unfair," Mrs Quoirin said.

"We are absolutely shocked at how they have chosen to conduct themselves.

Mrs Quoirin said the family had discovered through the Malaysian press that the results of a post mortem examination into her daughter's death would be released soon.

"We know this isn't straightforward. There aren't obvious criminal angles to pursue," she said.

"Some of that is down to not looking for evidence fast enough and not carrying out forensic checks immediately upon us raising the alarm.

"The case is complex, it won't be easy to get answers, that doesn't mean we shouldn't try."

Mrs Quoirin said she and her husband believe that their daughter was abducted.

"She is too vulnerable a child to have gone off anywhere by herself. She was not physically or mentally capable of doing that.

"We know that how she was found is incompatible with someone being alone and exposed in a jungle with no footwear or clothes for as long as she was.

"We absolutely believe that someone took her and we want to know how that happened."

Her funeral service was held at St Brigid's church in south Belfast in September, the church where she was baptised.