the times | Tuesday April 5 2022 2GM 23
News
Student who fell to
her death was afraid
of ‘toxic’ boyfriend
before she died her sister had visited her
in Dubai after breaking up with Bian-
chi, and added: “She was scared of him
because he was either drunk or on
drugs.”
The inquest was told that the sisters’
uncle had taken his own life and
Damilya had been going to therapy.
Alexandra Felix, representing Bian-
chi, asked: “Were you aware before this
of Damilya trying to take her own life
prior to this incident in June?”
Ainel replied: “No.” She said that her
family had begun to suspect that her
sister was taking drugs during her rela-
tionship with Bianchi.
She added that her sister had had
“lots of friends” but this changed
after meeting Bianchi. “She started to
ignore them [her friends]. She was
changing.
“She started to argue with all of us,
with my parents, with me. No one could
recognise her.”
The inquest was told that Damilya
was sent a video of her performing oral
sex on May 25, 2017, with a message say-
ing: “I am going to keep destroying
you.” One of her friends received the
same video clip from three different
numbers, with the threat: “I will f***
you up next, my love.”
When Bianchi’s phone was seized,
police found messages in which he had
asked a friend to send the video to
Damilya.
The coroner, Bernard Richmond
QC, confirmed that Damilya’s injuries
were consistent with a fall from a great
height. He said that there were “no inju-
ries indicative of assault or restraint by
a third party”.
The inquest continues.Nadeem Badshah
The family of a business student begged
her to break up with her “toxic” boy-
friend days before she fell 80ft to her
death from her London flat, an inquest
was told yesterday.
Damilya Jussipaliyeva, 24, was found
dead outside her building in June 2017,
a week after Alessio Bianchi said he
would show her family sexual footage
and a video of her taking cocaine.
In April 2018 Bianchi was given a sus-
pended sentence after admitting dis-
closing private sexual photographs and
films with intent to cause distress and
one charge of assault by beating.
A toxicology report found that Dam-
ilya, from Kazakhstan, had a high level
of alprazolam, which is used to treat
anxiety, in her system when she died in
Paddington, west London.
Bianchi and Damilya, who was
studying global management at Re-
gent’s University London, had been in
an on-off relationship” for two and a
half years, the inquest was told.
Giving evidence at Inner West
London coroner’s court via videolink
from Dubai, Damilya’s sister, Ainel Jus-
sipaliyeva, said: “She was a very cheerful
person. She had lots of friends. She had
never thought about finishing her life.”
Ainel said that a couple of months
Damilya
Jussipaliyeva
was suffering
from anxietyJazz veers to raw rock ’n’ roll
on a night of deep musicality
Rock Will Hodgkinson
Van Morrison
Theatre Royal, Drury Lane
London, WC2
HHHHIIn recent years, Van Morrison has
become as known for anti-lockdown
rants as he has for his soulful take on
the blues. It makes you wonder if his
last album, Latest Record Project
Volume 1, got blasted for its perceived
lack of musical qualities or because
Morrison was seen as a dangerous
dissenter of the party line.
Now that we’re over that particular
period in history, it was time to get
back to assessing Morrison on his
more enduring qualities, as a truculent
Belfast man with an uncommon
ability to channel the spirit of black
American music through his stocky,
ginger-topped frame.
Sufficiently reinstated into society
to play the august confines of the
Theatre Royal, Morrison got back to
what he has been doing for the best
part of half a century: not saying
much, rocking in time with the music,
and leading a tight R&B band
through songs old and new.
The strange, unique aspect to
Morrison in concert is that he doesn’t
mangle old classics in the way Bob
Dylan does, or go off on wilfully
obscure tangents like Neil Young.
Instead he stands impassively at
centre stage and sings beautifully, over
sets that veer from saxophone-led
supper-club jazz to raw rock’n’roll. He
appears to make little effort at crowd
pleasing, yet inspires some passionate
responses. One man screamed for
Take Me Back so vehemently that
Morrison relented and told the band
to play it. Then it collapsed a few
seconds in and he announced, “Sorry,
they don’t know that one.”
Various new songs dealt with the
challenges being Van Morrison
brings. Latest Record Project implored
his fans to embrace his new material
and not bang on about the old
chestnuts; Double Agent documented
the rip-offs he faced early on in his
career. And yet there were old
favourites, like the lamenting Days
Like This and the nostalgic blues And
It Stoned Me, from the beloved 1970
album Moondance.
Then there was the encore.
Morrison wandered off as the band
kept playing, came back about a
minute later and launched into Brown
Eyed Girl; the ultimate busker’s
standard and a song you wouldassume he would be heartily sick of
playing by now. Finally came Gloria
by Morrison’s teenage band Them, a
garage rock perennial about young
lust that he performed as a duet with
the definitely not young Sixties soul
singer Chris Farlowe, who popped up
throughout the evening. So ended an
evening of few words and deep,
occasionally transcendent, musicality.
Theatre Royal, tonightJEFF KRAVITZ/GETTY IMAGESVan Morrison makes little effort to crowd-please, but gets a passionate response