Camden New Journal - News: New Journal reporter nominated for investigative award

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Camden New Journal
Published: 11 October 2007

Dorothy Robinson

New Journal reporter nominated for investigative award

A NEW Journal expose by reporter Paul Keilthy of council abuses in the treatment of the elderly has been nominated for a prestigious investigative journalism award.
The nine-month probe into the clearance of the Parliament Hill flat of Dorothy Robinson, 92, as she lay dying in a nursing home, has been shortlisted for the Paul Foot Award for campaigning journalism 2007.
The council declared in January that Mrs Robinson had no next of kin and that the council flat she had lived in for 33 years – and which neighbours said was filled with antiques and valuable books as well as a lifetime’s memories – was ‘void’.
Housing department workers threw the contents of the flat into a skip.
We found Mrs Robinson’s grandson and three nieces- which the council had failed to do in a 13-month ‘search’ – and also her furniture in a Kentish Town antique shop.
The council was forced to admit that during 1,200 similar house clearances carried out each year no cash or jewellery had been handed in. A resulting Camden Council review has made 22 changes to council procedures and led to two staff members being charged with misconduct.
Paul Keilthy will join six other shortlisted journalists to be judged for the award, established in 2005 in memory of campaigning journalist Paul Foot, on Monday night.

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