Jessica Iddon inquest: Mother knew her daughter was dead

Jessica Iddon, 17, who lived in Darley Dale, died after a two-car smash at Stone Edge.

At an inquest on Tuesday, May 1, almost four years after the fatal collision, her devastated mum Lindsey Adderson said she knew straight away that something had happened to her daughter.

The manager of the Red Lion pub, close to where the crash took place, phoned her and said Jessica had been involved a “dreadful” accident.

Mrs Adderson added: “I said ‘is she dead?’ She said no but I said she is.”

She raced to the scene of the accident on the B5057 in June 2008 but her daughter had already been taken to hospital.

She added: “I kept saying ‘she’s not alive.’ I can’t explain it but I instinctively knew.”

Jessica, who had only moved to Darley Dale with her family six months before the accident had spent most of her life living in Somersall.

She was taking A-levels in English literature, psychology, maths and history at Tupton Hall School, planned to go to university and wanted to become a journalist.

She was the passenger in her ex-boyfriend Christopher Sims’s black Vauxhall Corsa when it collided with a 4x4 Kia Sorento.

Mr Sims, of Rectory Road, Duckmanton, was later accused of causing death by dangerously driving into the path of an oncoming vehicle but was cleared by a jury following a trial at Derby Crown Court in 2010.

Barry and Sue Lloyd, who were in the 4x4 along with their two grandchildren, gave evidence at the inquest.

The couple said they had seen Mr Sims’s car travelling fast, on the wrong side of the road.

The inquest heard how Mr Sims had pulled Jessica’s badly injured body from the passenger seat in to the drivers seat in a bid to get her out of the car.

The inquest continues.