Girl, 16, died trying to impress student by taking Ecstasy

Michael Millington, 20, persuaded his friend, Serena Harding, and two others to join up with him in buying a small amount of Class A drug MDMA from a dealer.

However, it was in a very pure form and Miss Harding became seriously ill, Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court heard.

Millington and another man, Dean Williams, 19, had bought the drugs from dealer Thomas Donelon, 20. Lisa Boocock, prosecuting, said Millington had previously told Miss Harding it was “the best drug”.

A dog walker came across the girl on the ground underneath a bench in a park in Stockport, Greater Manchester,

A fourth man was at the same bench and was “out of it”.

Millington told police what had happened as medics battled in vain to save her life, while Williams said they had taken the drug as a celebration for Millington getting into Liverpool University.

Sentencing, Judge Maurice Green said: “This is a tragic case for all concerned, the greatest tragedy the death of a 16-year-old girl. It is impossible to quite understand the devastation that her family must feel as a result of losing that young girl.”

He said that Crohn’s Disease sufferer Miss Harding had medical problems and may have survived otherwise.

Sentencing Millington, of Lymm, Cheshire, to a 12-month term in a young offenders’ institute, suspended for 12 months, he accepted the chemistry student had shown he was “extremely remorseful”. Williams, of The Clough, Brinnington, was sentenced to six months in a young offenders’ institute, suspended for 12 months.

However, he ruled only a custodial sentence could be justified for Donelon, of Julius Street, Levenshulme, who admitted dealing offences and was jailed for two years.