Owners of Adelphi Hotel to appear in court after woman dies aged 21

The owners of the Adelphi Hotel are due to appear in court today after a 21-year-old woman died after being crushed by a falling wardrobe. Chloe Haynes was found dead in her room at the Lime Street site in 2022. Britannia Hotels Ltd, which operates the Adelphi, has since been charged with a total of 20 health and safety offences under the names of two limited companies, in a prosecution brought by Liverpool City Council . The case is listed before Judge Brian Cummings KC at Liverpool Crown Court this morning, Monday. The ECHO previously reported that Chloe was found dead in her room at the Adelphi Hotel in the early hours of September 10 2022, leading to three men being arrested on suspicion of murder. However, they were ultimately released without charge after her death was determined to be accidental. Chloe had travelled to Liverpool from Hafan y Mor Haven Holiday Park in Pwllheli, North Wales, where she worked, for a night out and was sharing a room at the city centre hotel with a colleague who discovered her body and raised the alarm. Her mum Nicola Williams told the ECHO: "There was some sort of engagement party. She had been drinking shots and so on and she was a bit drunk, so her friend has taken her back to the hotel to sleep it off and then he's gone back out. "It seems she has got up out of the bed confused, not knowing where she is, and she's opened the door of the wardrobe, maybe thinking it is the toilet or the door to go back out of the room. It was a big, old, heavy wardrobe and it's fallen on her and crushed her windpipe." Ms Williams reported that Chloe's friend had later returned to the room to be confronted with the scene, after which he shouted for help from two men in other rooms. They then helped to lift the wardrobe but were unable to save her life. One of the men, Wayne Kenny, from Bootle , told the ECHO that he was stunned to be arrested on suspicion of murder after attempting to perform CPR on Chloe, saying: "I was thinking, could I get accused for something I haven't done? Could they make a mistake? To be thinking that for 10 hours was hard work." Chloe's mum described her daughter as "petite and beautiful" and added: "She loved animals. She had a little dog called Archie she was obsessed with. My little nickname for her was birdy. She was so petite and little, and when she ate she was like a little bird. She was quiet, she was somebody who didn't speak unless it needed saying. "But, in the last 12 months, she was coming out of her shell. She was gaining her confidence and she had a wide circle of friends. She was kind and caring and she seemed to connect with gay men, and that was how she met the friend she went to Liverpool with." Keith Morton KC, representing Britannia Hotels, stated that his client would be indicating no plea during an earlier hearing at Liverpool Magistrates' Court in May . Adjourning the matter, District Judge Paul Healey said: "There are a number of charges contrary to the Health and Safety Act 1984. "Because a plea has not been indicated, I have to consider whether a trial can take place in the magistrates' court or whether it should be sent to the crown court for a trial to take place. I should consider the nature of the allegation and the likely sentence if a conviction were to follow. "I have to consider the complexity, the background and the nature of the evidence. In the event of a not guilty plea, the trial should take place before a judge and jury at the crown court. I am going to send all of the charges to Liverpool Crown Court to be tried and confirm a plea and trial preparation hearing. On that date, it is expected that a plea will be entered to the respective charges." Investigations by the local authority's environmental health department have been proceeding since 2022, leading to the charges being brought earlier this year. A Britannia Hotels spokesman told the ECHO in April: "We can confirm that Liverpool City Council has initiated legal proceedings in relation to the Adelphi Hotel and we are fully cooperating with the legal process. Our sympathies remain with the families and loved ones of those involved. As this matter is now before the courts, it would be inappropriate for us to comment further at this time." While details of each of the 20 counts were not read out in full in court on the last occasion, the ECHO has seen charge sheets detailing the allegations against Britannia Hotels. They allege the safety of employees, non-employees, Ms Haynes and Valencia Verdin, a three-year-old girl who was injured after a cabinet fell on her at the hotel in August last year, was endangered by the failure to "secure windows in guest rooms with appropriate control measures to prevent them from opening too far", "securing wardrobes to prevent them from toppling over" in six different hotel rooms, as well as similar counts in relation to a cabinet in another room. These charges range in date between January 2021 to August 2025. Valencia's mother Danielle Kenny, from Widnes , previously told the ECHO that she had spent the day of August 1 last year in Liverpool city centre with her four children before staying the night at the Adelphi. With the mum having been preparing to bathe her nine-month-old son the following morning, her daughter was said to have opened the door of a corner cabinet when the item of furniture fell and landed on top of her. She then recalled how her little girl's face was left pouring with blood as a result, leading to her spending the day in Alder Hey Children's Hospital .