A model jumped seven floors to her death from a Manchester hotel filled with Labour Party delegates after her secret life was exposed.
Laura Pahomova, originally from Latvia, threw herself from Light Aparthotel in the Northern Quarter back in 2012 after a former client told her family she was an escort.
She allegedly scrawled notes in lipstick over the walls and furniture of the apartment room and blamed Martin Riley for leaking details of her life to her father Janis Vinters.
She also sent a group text messages to each member of her family which said: “Please forgive me, I love you very much. You are all going to be ok. I will watch your souls living a good life.
“For me it’s too late. Please forgive me, you are my world. I lost my mind. Please wear a lot of pink. I always love that. At the moment you can’t do anything, I made too many mistakes but you are going to be OK I promise you.
“I was afraid but I’m not anymore. It’s only my fault. Nothing can save my soul or my body. Take care of yourselves and I will take care of you.”
She landed on a sixth floor balcony below in the morning of September 30 2012, where she was pronounced dead at the scene.
Since arriving in the UK in 2008, Laura had worked in factories and studied, before settling in a small flat in Blackburn.
A brief modelling career came before her escort work in 2011, which she described to a close friend as ‘posh prostitution’.
She maintained to her family back in Latvia that she was choosing between university courses and was doing well in the UK, the inquest in Manchester heard today.
Despite their dysfunctional beginnings, Laura and Riley soon began a ‘relationship’ during which they holidayed together and he even met her family in Latvia, it was said.
But it seemed to deteriorate and in a police interview following her death where he was treated as a suspect, he said he hadn’t seen her for over six months.
He eventually came across her profile where she was calling herself ‘Poppy’, and made an appointment to see her under the false name of ‘Mike’ at a hotel in Salford, Manchester.
When they met up that evening a frightened Laura was said to be distressed and shocked and he was made to leave immediately.
But the following day he sent an email to Laura’s step-mother and father which said she was working as an escort rather than studying and she needed to go back to Latvia to get help, it was said.
Disturbingly, he later told police that he didn’t want Laura to know about the contact as she had explicitly said that she would commit suicide if her family found out about her lifestyle.
Det Sgt Cheryl Morrell, from Greater Manchester Police, said that when interviewed, Riley described Laura being in a ‘fragile state’, after he told her parents.
She said: “He said he had genuine worries she could do something very bad to herself and is capable of doing so.
“He said he sent the messages to get her back to Latvia to help her get support. He said he was hoping to get her vital support. It didn’t ring true.”
Mr Vinters told the inquest his daughter would go back and forth quite regularly between Latvia and England, but when she met Riley the visits and contact became less frequent.
Speaking through an interpreter, he said: “On September 27 2012 my wife Diana told me that she had received an email from Martin Riley actually saying what Laura was doing in England was not a university student but working as an escort.
“Mr Riley provided details of how her services could be obtained over the internet. My wife and I were very shocked and surprised to receive this information.
“We wanted to get Laura back home to safety as quickly as we could. We had no idea this was her life. This was a new thing.”
On September 29 2012, Mrs Vinters received another email from Riley which said that Laura knew her parents were aware of the situation, and she now felt she couldn’t return home.
After sending the group text, Mr Vinters immediately replied offered to pay for her flights to come back home, she replied: “No, I have a ticket. I’m thinking about the family. You deserve a better daughter.”
Reaching a conclusion of suicide, coroner Nigel Meadows said: “It seems Mr Riley had been researching the internet to identify her and did so.
“For reasons only he will understand he decided to contact the family to make disclosures about her lifestyle when she clearly had not wished him to do that. It is clear from the writing she was very distressed.
“This is a very sad and tragic loss of a young life and I am sure that Mr Vinters and the rest of the family would have welcomed Laura back home to a place of safety irrespective of whatever lifestyle she may have been adopting.”
Story via Cavendish Press.
Image courtesy of Google maps, with thanks.
