The Voice, 21-27 June 2010

Calls for public inquiry over disabled woman’s death

Loved ones and charities slam inquest that cleared council they claim neglected her

By Trudy Simpson

FAMILY, FRIENDS and several charities are calling for a public inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the death of a wheelchair-bound woman who was found dead in her Camden flat, after years of asking the London council for help.

Supporters of popular former schoolteacher and catering manager Jennifer Spencer want Camden Council to hold a public inquiry, and have demanded that the council discipline staff who, they claim, neglected her.

Spencer was discovered dead in her fifth floor flat at the Waxhall Estate in Mansfield Road, Gospel Oak, on March 1, after neighbours called officials to investigate water leakage from her home into the flats below.

It is  still not clear what exactly caused Spencer’s death, but in a letter to local newspaper Camden New Journal, which was found after her death, Spencer outlined her seven-year fight with the local council to get re-housed to a ground floor flat, as well as her struggle for social care.

“When you read this, I’ll be dead….I wish that no human/animal should ever go through life as I did or endure  so much deliberate cruelty….” Her letter reportedly stated.

A June 3 inquest into Spencer’s death cleared Camden Council staff of any wrongdoing, but friends and representatives from two charities allege that the inquest was a “white wash”.

“We are pushing for a public inquiry. She should have been re-housed into accessible accomodation. She should have had more help sorting out her care arrangements.

“Camden stopped her payment for care (in 2008)….and the inquest was very frustrating because the truth about what happened to her didn’t come out and most of the people who were testifying didn’t know her”, said Claire Glasman from the charity Winvisible (Women with Visible and Invisible Disabilities).

“The finding was that the cause of death was unascertainable. They ruled out suicide or murder…but it was very cursory. It was a bit like because she was already disabled, they didn’t need to investigate why she died because she’d had some strokes before…

“She was obviously having problems with her care arrangements and Camden Council should have found a way to sort it out with her instead of treating her as a troublemaker. They characterised her as wilfully not replying to things. They don’t know when she was in hospital, for example, and not able to open her door”. In Voice interviews, friends and the charities said Spencer, who had a brain tumour that caused her to suffer frequent strokes and black outs, had not received any re-housing help from Camden Council from 2007 until her death in 2010.

They detailed how Spencer, affectionately known as Alex, often struggled with living on the fifth floor unadapted flat, where the lift did not often work and where “every day she had to drag a wheelchair up a step to get into her own flat”, said Sara Callaway from the Women of Colour network.

“Ms Spencer pleaded with the council and informed workers about her physical condition…However, she never got a helping hand from them.

Her benefits were ended instead, “three of Spencer’s friends, Aichel Moreno Bautista, Deborah Bridgeman and Janice Drummond, wrote in a letter to the Voice.

“She would still be alive if she had received appropriate help and attention”, they said.

“We are appalled at the lack of social care”, Bridgeman said.

Bautista added:” Anytime we felt sad, she would cheer us up I am sad. I don’t understand why the Council let her down”.

However, Camden Council has rejected the allegations, claiming in a statement: “Ms Spencer had a history of refusing to engage with social care and housing services despite ongoing attempts to provide her with support”.

The Council said there would be no public enquiry because “the coroner found that there was no gross misconduct or negligence on its part”.

It said Spencer ‘s current flat was not adapted or her front step ramped because she would not be able to safely use rails or manoeuvre up the ramp, as there was no sufficient turning space for her wheelchair.

The Council said it offered Spencer five “two bed wheelchair-adapted“ flats that she rejected.

Camden Council said Spencer’s financial assistance was stopped when she was either not spending the money or had violated payment conditions by paying her own carers in cash.