- Because of her paranoia
- she had no television, rarely
- used her computer, would often
- throw away her mobile phone
- and change her number;
- she thought it was being bugged.
- She had accused her mother
- and female neighbours
- of being witches, once
- accused a woman
- walking her dog
- of sending messages to the police.
- She was unable to shop or cook.
- Shopping online was difficult – she did not like
- to use the computer, was scared
- to open the door.
- She would turn up outside her mother’s house
- 7am
- screaming
- threatening to burn the house down.
- At one stage
- she tried to climb the telegraph pole
- outside the house.
- On several occasions she had run away –
- to local woodland, where she had lived for several months;
- to Siberia in the middle of winter;
- to Israel –
- to escape those she believed
- were conspiring against her.
- She was an artist. She dreamed
- of buying
- a rundown bungalow
- in Cornwall.
- She had attempted suicide several times when she was younger;
- a demon
- in her head
- was telling her to take her own life.
- For the last year of her life
- she had been complaining of extreme fatigue.
- She had lived with her mother and step-father for many years,
- then for two years in sheltered accommodation nearby,
- but was moved into a housing association flat.
- The flat was very dirty. No working
- appliances, full
- of rubbish and filth,
- huge holes in the floor,
- the dual carriageway
- in front of the windows.
- All her benefits
- had been removed by the Department,
- which wrote to tell her
- her support was ending
- because she had failed to return a form on time.
- The Housing Association
- sent letters
- threatening to evict her.
- The Council sent a summons
- for unpaid tax.
- Her electricity had been
- cut off.
- During the summer, she visited her mother regularly,
- and told her she was surviving
- on a sandwich and a cup of coffee a day.
- In September, she had a psychotic episode
- and again cut off
- contact with her mother.
- In October, her mother messaged her
- that her grandmother had died.
- There was no reply.
- She was being given injections of flupenthixol
- a powerful anti-psychotic
- every two weeks.
- Later in October,
- her non-appearance
- for the scheduled injection
- failed to be noticed –
- the Trust had been significantly under-staffed –
- until a new co-ordinator
- tried unsuccessfully to contact her,
- and alerted the police
- a week later.
- In March, the Department wrote to her mother
- to tell her it would be making a back-payment
- from April to the day in November
- when the police discovered her body.
[Disability News Service, 08/09/2022, DWP hounded disabled woman for years before her ‘starvation’ death, papers show]