A PROMISING trainee teacher plunged to her death after taking the recreational drug mephedrone, known as ‘bubble’, an inquest in Warrington heard yesterday.

Charlotte Stringman, aged 19, of Alfred Street, Widnes, jumped off the Silver Jubilee Bridge at the exact spot where her cousin, Susan Bradshaw, committed suicide, four years earlier.

In a pink party dress, Charlotte’s body was found on the banks of the River Mersey, beside The Mersey Hotel in West Bank, shortly after 7am on Sunday, November 14, last year.

She had been celebrating her aunt’s 50th birthday with her family the night before and then went with friends to a party at a flat in Clapgate Crescent, Hale Bank.

A post mortem revealed she died from multiple injuries after taking mephedrone, cocaine, cannabis and alcohol.

Her mum, Shelley Lacey, a travel consultant, said Charlotte had been very close to her cousin from childhood as they were only a year apart.

She said: “It affected Charlotte very badly. She wished she had known how she had been feeling. There was nothing she could have done but she felt she could.”

Charlotte, a former pupil at SS Peter & Paul School and Cronton Sixth Form College, had a tattoo printed on her back in remembrance of Susan.

She took her photograph with her to Preston where she studied art and design.

Her mum, added: “She had done work experience at her primary school, St Bede’s.

“She was about to start teacher training at Hope.”

She said Charlotte used to go to raves once a month.

In March, 2010, Charlotte took an overdose of her mum’s blood pressure tablets.

She told a psychiatric crisis team she had experienced hallucinations after taking bubble but felt remorseful afterwards.

Ashley Norton, her best friend since childhood, said they both started taking cannabis when they were 13.

She said: “Charlotte liked ketamine (a recreational drug) and used to buy half an ounce for £160, split it up and keep quantities for going out. She always had it at parties.”

Ashley was with Charlotte and friends in Halebank, hours before she died.

She said Charlotte said: ‘I need a pick me up’ and asked her for bubble, but she didn’t have any left.

Ashley, added: “She was starting to get paranoid and said people were talking about her and laughing at her. She called a taxi and said she was going home.”

Charlotte left at 6am, missing taxi by minutes.

Taxi driver Hugh Norton waited outside the flats for half an hour and saw a girl on the landing but Charlotte never came out.

Afterwards, he said: “I just went cold. I did everything I could do to collect that fare.”

Traffic cop PC Graham Clayton drove to bridge after a colleague, going home on night shift, spotted a girl leaning on the railing.

PC Clayton, said: “She was sitting on the outside of the railing. Her legs were dangling over the edge.

“I didn’t want to spook her so I crossed the bridge and came back. By this time, she wasn’t to be seen.”

Cheshire Coroner, Nicholas Rheinberg, said: “Very wicked suppliers are always one step ahead of the law.

“Once one new form of amphetamines becomes illeglal, they bring another one onto the street.

“The trouble is when you are with a group of friends who are all taking substances, it is easy to follow and join in.

“Charlotte had taken a variety of substances and alcohol.

“She was temporarily rendered paranoid.

“Who knows what impulses drove her to the bridge where she met her death.

“I don’t think her cousin was ever very far from her mind. I think, coming down from drugs, she ruminated on her cousin. She took her own life whilst her mind was temporarily disturbed.”