The family of a British woman found dead in an Australian strip club in mysterious circumstances have spoken of their devastation.

Stacey Tierney, 29, had reportedly hosted a private event for a group of men at Dreams Gentlemen’s Club in Melbourne on the night of 18 December. Her body was found 12 hours later at 11.50am.

In a statement the family said they had been through an extremely difficult time since learning about her death. “Stacey was, and will always be, the most amazing, special, caring person you could ever meet and this loss has devastated our family,” the statement said.

“The circumstances surrounding Stacey’s death are being investigated by the authorities in Melbourne and we wait to hear further news every day.

“While we continue to work with the authorities in Melbourne, our primary aim at this time is to bring Stacey home.

“Until we have Stacey home and the investigation is complete we would be grateful if the family’s privacy can be respected and we are allowed time to come to terms with what has happened.”

The family had previously raised concerns of foul play, saying they had received very little information about how she might have died.

Police in Melbourne are investigating her death and say it will be subject to a coronial investigation, usually reserved for deaths that are either deemed not suspicious or where the cause of death is not clear.

It is understood police are studying CCTV footage of the strip club and the surrounding area, and looking into claims that she was with a group of men in the hours before she died. It was reported that the men fled without alerting the emergency services.

Tierney’s cousin, Paul Tierney, told the Daily Mail that he believed she had been left “dying or dead” by people at the club.

“It is shocking behaviour and very distressing,” he said.

Her family have rejected suggestions she may have been aunder the influence of drugs at the time of her death, saying she was health-conscious and “not the type of girl to get involved in drugs”.

The qualified fitness instructor had been in Australia for three years, travelling from city to city. She returned to Melbourne in mid-2016 and is understood to have worked as a dancer at three clubs to fund her travels.

According to her family, she returned to the UK in 2015 then travelled back to Australia on a student visa, with the hope of studying nursing.

One of her friends and co-workers, who gave her name to the Daily Mail as Briar Rose, said Tierney occasionally gave private dances to make more money. “That’s how we all make money. If we didn’t do private lap dances we wouldn’t be paid so much,” she said.

The club broke its silence on Wednesday, issuing a statement extending the “sincere sympathies and condolences” of the owners, managers and staff to Tierney’s family. “We will continue to cooperate with and assist Victoria police with their ongoing investigation into the circumstances surrounding Stacey’s death,” the club said.

The club is located between a 24-hour McDonald’s outlet and a 7-Eleven near Flinders Street station on Elizabeth Street, a busy area even on a Sunday night.

A fundraising campaign to cover the cost of repatriating Tierney’s body has raised more than £11,000 pounds.

Cousin Colleen Bourke, who is running the GoFundMe campaign, described Tierney as a lovely soul. “We obviously knew how great she was,” she said. “We were so proud of her and spoke to her all the time. She was so fit and loved dancing.”

Fellow dancers Cheryl Minxy Grant and Jordan Black posted tributes to Tierney on social media.

“You didn’t deserve this, no one does,” Grant said. “I thought it would make things easier if we knew what happened, but with each new detail I think everyone becomes more shocked and heartbroken that in your last hours on this Earth you had to endure what you did.

“I really hope you know how much you are loved and that we won’t stop until whoever did this to you is put behind bars.”

Black echoed those sentiments and said she hoped that “whatever it is that happened and whoever is responsible will soon be found out”.



