A Dundee woman accused of snorting human ashes as a party stunt has denied involvement in the incident.
Witnesses claim they saw Natalie Hawes hoovering up the remains at a drunken house party in the city’s Hilltown area.
The 20-year-old confirmed there was an incident. But she added: “It didn’t involve me. I didn’t snort anyone’s ashes at all.”
Jacqui Tierney previously told how she was devastated when she found out her mother Hilda’s ashes had apparently been inhaled.
Hawes claimed she has been threatened by friends and relatives of Jacqui and been forced to go into hiding over the claims.
Jacqui said the stunt happened two months ago. Hawes who has been widely identified on social media as the “snorter” claimed it was two-and-a-half years ago.
She also said she thought the ashes were a legal high substance called bubbles.
The 20-year-old added: “They tried to tell me the powder was bubbles but I could see it wasn’t right. It didn’t look like what they said it was. It looked like ash out of an ashtray. I never took it.”
The Daily Record spoke to one of Hawes’s closest friends. She claimed Hawes had admitted to her that she had snorted the ashes “by accident” and “felt sick for days” afterwards.
Hawes now claims her friend was mistaken.
She said: “My friend has obviously picked me up wrong.”
She says the scandal has caused her to flee the city: “I’ve actually moved out of Dundee because it’s ruining up my life.
“How would you like that done to you?”
Mum-of-four Jacqui, 51, kept the small amount of ashes in an urn guarded by a pet snake in her living room of her home in the Hilltown area of Dundee.
She said she had stepped out of the room when Hawes snorted the remains.
The stunt was witnessed by a friend, who only this week told the mum of four what happened.
One witness described the incident as “Worse than jumping on someone’s grave.”