British nurse Helen Smith cremated 30 years after Saudi balcony fall death

Remains held in Leeds mortuary because father believed truth about case had been covered up

After a private ceremony attended by a few members of her family, the body of a British nurse who fell from a

balcony during an illicit cocktails party in Saudi Arabia thirty years ago was burned today.

The remains of Helen Smith, 23, have been stored in a mortuary in Leeds ever since her father, Ron, launched an

unrelenting campaign accusing the Saudi and British governments of concealing information about the tragedy in

Jeddah. Following an appeal from his ex-wife, Jeryl, retired police officer Ron Smith, who is now 83 years old and

suffering from severe kidney disease, relaxed his restriction on cremation last month. He acknowledged his ex-wife’s

claim that cremation was something he would “never give up his campaign nor his belief in a cover-up.”

Mr Smith had believed forensic evidence could aid to prove their daughter was murdered rather than falling

inadvertently after or during drunken intercourse. He played a key role in amending the legislation to require

inquests in Britain when Britons die abroad in violent or exceptional circumstances, even while the exact

circumstances are still unknown. Wearing a thick overcoat and a bright red scarf, Mr. Smith used a stick to help him

move slowly into Wakefield Crematorium this afternoon.

Helen’s casket arrived in beautiful sunshine with a massive wreath of mostly pink flowers on top, and he joined his

ex-wife and a dozen or so other visitors for a brief service in the chapel. It is anticipated that the couple will gather on

Wednesday for another private ceremony to spread the ashes at the Cow and Calf rocks on Ilkley Moor with their

three other children, Graham, David, and Beverley. Growing up in the nearby Leeds neighbourhood of Guiseley,

Helen loved going on picnics along the cliff with its cascade of boulders.

Her body was discovered six stories below the balcony of an apartment owned by Richard Arnot, a British

consultant, and Penny, his wife, who had planned the unlawful gathering. The body of a 35-year-old Dutch tugboat

captain named Johannes Otten, who had reportedly been with Helen shortly before, was found next to her, impaled

on a spiked fence.

As more and more soiled information surfaced, the affair became into a global scandal. Saudi visitors were allegedly

there, although they were never identified. Penny Arnot was condemned to a public flogging for unlawful sex with a

New Zealand diver, although the penalty was never carried out.

Although an inquest in Leeds returned an open finding on the case after six post-mortems on the body reached

conflicting results, the change in coroners’ rule came following an appeal court ruling on the Smith case in 1982.

Several organs were missing when the corpses were repatriated from Jeddah.

Mr. Smith declared, “I will never give up in this cause I have been fighting for 30 years,” after he lifted his

prohibition on cremation. “I will never accept that there has been no cover-up.”

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