Hypnosis plea fails

The mother of a young woman who died in her sleep hours after being hypnotised on stage failed in a High Court bid to force a fresh inquest to be held.

Margaret Harper, 52, launched a campaign for a ban on stage hypnosis shows after her daughter Sharron Tabarn, 25, died in 1993. She had been put into a trance at the Roebuck pub in Leyland, Lancashire. Her heart had stopped due to congestion in the lungs from inhalation of vomit. The Lancashire coroner Howard McCann recorded a verdict of death through natural causes. Mrs Harper challenged the verdict. But Lord Justice Simon Brown, sitting with Mr Justice Mance, said yesterday there was no realistic prospect of changing the verdict by re-opening the inquiry."