Open verdict on tragic chess star

Jessica was 19 when she fell from the eighth floor of the Hotel Labe in Pardubice in the Czech Republic during a European competition.

Her death on July 26 last year came weeks before her father Ian Gilbert was due to face trial on five counts of raping her. He was later acquitted.

Surrey Coroner Michael Burgess said at the hearing at Epsom Coroner's Court: "If she jumped deliberately she didn't make her intentions sufficiently clear to those of us who have to investigate such matters.

"I am aware she was about to give evidence in her father's trial. I have no doubt this was a prospect she found daunting, possibly even terrifying."

Outside court, Dr Angela Gilbert made an impassioned plea for children like her daughter to receive more help and understanding.

She said: "Jessie has been robbed of a happy and fulfilling future and the world has been deprived of a special young woman with so much to give.

"We believe that Jessie's very public death is her legacy to many other children and that she will achieve in death what she hoped to do in life - to save others' lives."

Jessica's father, Ian, was cleared of five counts of raping his daughter at a trial at Guildford Crown Court last year.

Her death on July 26 came weeks before the trial was due to start. The case was then postponed until November when the Royal Bank of Scotland director was eventually cleared.