This week marks the first anniversary of the death of model and socialite Katy French. After a year of rumour, unfounded allegations and downright lies, the French family will know within the next few weeks if anyone will face charges for their role in her cocaine-related death.

The family's attempt to privately grieve their loss has been compounded by the unprecedented media interest in the 24-year-old's passing. Even in death she has continued to dominate the front pages.

In the year since the tragedy, investigating officers have built up a detailed picture of the last days of French's life.

The investigation has been painstakingly extensive. Led by Supt Michael Devine at Navan garda station, up to 20 officers worked for several months to establish in detail the model's last movements.

Over 50 people have been interviewed and four were arrested, including Kieron 'The Wolf' Ducie and his then girlfriend Ann Corcoran, at whose Navan home French collapsed after previously taking a large quantity of cocaine as well as alcohol.

Two other men, including Russell Memery, were arrested and questioned about allegedly supplying cocaine to French.

File

A file recommending charges against Memery and the other man gardaí believe supplied her with drugs has been with the Director of Public Prosecutions for over six months. Gardaí have also recommended that Ducie be charged in relation to the statement he made about Katy's movements in her last hours.

According to a senior garda involved in the investigation: "We would be very surprised if charges are not brought. We sent a substantial file because it was such a
massive investigation. We were actually expecting directions from the DPP last week. It could be any day. We're expecting to hear in the next week or two, certainly before Christmas."

But some have branded the massive probe, which included input from the National Drugs Unit, into the model's death as "appalling and disproportionate" in comparison with other garda investigations into drug-related deaths.

"I am quite shocked by the garda response to her death compared to their response to the hundreds of other young people who've died from taking drugs over the past few years," said Fr Peter McVerry, who works with homeless people and drug-users in Dublin's city centre.

"There's something really appalling about it. Because someone has celebrity status a lot of attention and effort is being put into pursuing whoever supplied her with drugs. But the garda reaction to someone who dies from a heroin overdose and is found lying dead on the street is completely different – there is a total lack of interest in pursuing that."

But the guards have a different view. "The media set the agenda on Katy French. We're under pressure to get a result on such a high-profile death because the general public have been reading about her nearly every day for a year," said another garda. "We all know why Katy French sells newspapers over some under-privileged heroin addict."

Whatever the motivations for the wide-spanning investigation, the general public wanted every salacious detail of the exact circumstances that led to the model's death. And gardaí are confident the DPP have been provided with a detailed snapshot of her last movements.

Gardaí say there is enough evidence to charge three men but their definition of 'enough evidence' can often be at odds with the DPP's view and gardaí who are heavily involved in an investigation can sometimes find it difficult to be objective about the real potential for prosecutions.

Birthday

The day before French was rushed to hospital, she called to the home of her two friends in Kilmessan, Co Meath, on the night of 1 December, just a few days after a lavish party to celebrate her birthday at Krystle nightclub attended by socialites, models and members of the media.

Detectives believe that French made arrangements to collect cocaine before arriving at Ducie and Corcoran's house that night. She had previously admitted to taking cocaine. Detectives believe that certain individuals have not given accurate accounts of what happened in the hours leading up to her death.

Details of her phone records including text messages and the triangulation of mobile signals have been examined to determine where she went to meet people on that night.

No party

In the hours after the drugs were bought, gardaí are somewhat in the dark as to what exactly happened. They are satisfied that only French, Ducie and Corcoran were in the house, and there was no party going on, as was widely reported.

One issue of focus was whether or not medical assistance was immediately sought when it became clear the young model was in difficulty.

What is known for definite is that French arrived at Our Lady's Hospital in Navan just after 10am on the morning of Sunday, 2 December. But the garda investigation didn't begin until the Monday as it wouldn't be the norm for hospitals to inform gardaí about a patient's drugs overdose.

At that point, any chance the police had of examining any potential crime scene at the house in Kilmessan had greatly diminished, and Ducie and Corcoran could not even be directly blamed for cleaning up their home and any potential evidence in the 24 hours that followed.

Just as the guards in Navan were responding on-the-hoof, rumours began widely circulating in Dublin. The photos of French just a few days previously in her gold Gucci dress at her birthday party were promptly reprinted and were still clear in people's memories.

A well-known socialite couple began to emerge as suspects in the eyes of the media for supplying her with cocaine. This was later discounted by gardaí as speculation without foundation.

A well-known writer was also linked to the model in a sordid way, but this was discussed in whispers rather than newsprint. Crooked car dealers, not to mention major Dublin drug-lords, were also implicated as the extent of the appetite for Katy French stories became apparent.

All of this made the garda inquiry all the more difficult. "Every piece of rumour and speculation about her death was published," according to a source. "It got to a ridiculously outlandish point."

French's collapse, and subsequent death a year ago this Saturday, happened just days before two young Waterford men were hospitalised and later died after taking cocaine at a house party. And two weeks before that, a controversial book by Justine Delaney Wilson had been published alleging that a government minister snorted cocaine.

Frenzied

The media was at the height of its frenzied cocaine coverage when French died. She quickly became the poster child for casual middle-class drug use and she epitomised the country's fondness for the white stuff.

At the time, politicians and media commentators proclaimed that her death would be the 'watershed' and 'wake-up call' to scare casual cocaine users all over the country into never touching the stuff again. But in reality, 12 months on, nothing has changed.

Recent research shows that cocaine remains as popular as ever. In October, an all-Ireland report from the National Advisory Committee on Drugs (NACD) found that one in 20 Irish people and almost one in 10 young people have taken cocaine.

North Dublin, where almost 16% of young people said they had used the drug, emerged as the country's cocaine blackspot, but rates are rising steeply everywhere.

A report from the Health Research Board (HRB) a few weeks ago revealed that drug dealers have begun distributing crack cocaine throughout the Dublin region.

A&E departments around the country say they are seeing the same number of 'cocaine casualties' – agitated patients who believe they're having heart attacks after taking too much cocaine – as they were this time last year.

"I don't think it was the wake-up call everyone thought it would be," said Mark Doyle, a consultant in emergency medicine at Waterford Regional Hospital.

"But often young people don't take these things on board. We still see a handful of cocaine cases every week."