Hotel chain faces trial after woman, 21, ‘crushed by falling wardrobe’

A hotel is facing a three-week trial after a 21-year-old guest was crushed to death by a falling wardrobe in her room.

Chloe Haynes, 21, was found dead under the heavy wooden wardrobe at the Britannia Adelphi Hotel in Liverpool after a night out in the city.

The holiday park worker had travelled from Pwllheli, North Wales, to stay with a friend at the Grade II listed hotel.

Britannia Hotels Ltd – which operates the Adelphi – has since been charged with a total of 20 health

A prosecution brought by Liverpool City Council also involves an incident in August 2025 when three-year-old Valencia Verdin received head injuries after a cabinet fell on her at the same hotel.

Judge Brian Cummings KC fixed a further plea hearing date for December 4 this year. A provisional three-week trial date has been set for November 15, 2027, at Liverpool Crown Court.

Chloe’s mum, Nicola Williams, 54, of Wrexham, has been demanding answers over the tragic death of her ‘petite and beautiful’ daughter since the accident in September 2022.

Ms Williams said: ‘I need to know, as a mum, I need to know every detail. I don’t know how long she was under there before she died. I just cannot believe my daughter is never coming home because of a wardrobe, for the sake of maybe two screws in a wall.’

The 21-year-old – who was a twin and one of five children – was only discovered when her friend returned to the room in the early hours of the morning to find the horrific scene.

The friend, in turn, called for help before two men from other rooms came to help lift the wardrobe, only to find Chloe crushed underneath.

Three men, aged 26, 46 and 49 – including the 21-year-old’s friend and the two ‘Good Samaritans’ who came to help – were initially arrested in connection with the death but were later released.

The 21-year-old’s mother said: ‘By midnight, she had been drinking shots and so on, and she was a bit drunk, so her friend had taken her back to the hotel to sleep it off, and then he went back out.

‘It seems she has got up out of 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 fell on her and crushed her windpipe.’

Speaking about her loss in September 2022, the bereaved mother said: ‘My little nickname for her was birdy. She was so petite, and when she ate, she was like a little bird,’ Ms Williams said.

‘She was quiet, she was somebody who didn’t speak unless it needed saying. She was beautiful, but she had struggled with confidence in herself, so she didn’t really know how beautiful she was and that made her beautiful on the inside as well. She was very kind.

‘But in the last 12 months, she had been coming out of her shell. She was gaining her confidence, and she had a wide circle of friends.’

Metro has contacted Britannia Hotels for a statement.

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