Camden New Journal - News: Daily reminders of the horror

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Camden New Journal - by DAVID ST GEORGE and PAUL KEILTHY
Published: 14 February 2008

Maurice Baldock with children, from left, Zoe, Stephanie and Peter Barrow

Daily reminders of the horror

THE family of Miriam Baldock are confronted with daily reminders of her murder because Camden Council have yet to move them from the Maiden Lane estate.
Her husband Maurice Baldock and daughter Stephanie Barrow were swiftly rehoused after the knife attack – but only to another maisonette yards from the home that killer Stuart Forsyth turned into a house of horrors last August.
After watching as Forsyth was led to a life in prison at the Old Bailey, Stephanie Barrow said: “Neither of us can go back to the homes we lived in on the Maiden Lane estate – but they have put us in temporary homes in Maiden Lane. We’ve got to go on the points system like everyone else, after our lives were destroyed by an evil coward who tried to kill two people who couldn’t defend themselves. I worry about dad. When we go to stay with family anywhere else, he starts to come back to his old self. But when he is here he is sick, silent.”
Mr Baldock only just survived the attack which left his wife dead in the home she had lived in for 30 years. He said: “I can no longer live without Steph. She’s my carer and she always will be. We need to live together but I need some privacy, too.”
The pair, along with Stephanie’s children, are on the council’s housing list with maximum points but they question the quality of the alternative homes on offer.
“There’s nothing suitable. We have always had a garden for the children but they offer tower blocks miles from where they go to school,” Ms Barrow said.
There has also been wrangling over rent on the house where the murder took place. Mr Baldock is officially in arrears even though he has never entered it since the attack. “It would kill him,” Ms Barrow said.
Yesterday, a council press official said: “The council is working with Mr Baldock and his daughter, Ms Barrow, to find them suitable accommodation. Following the tragic incident in August we found the family temporary accommodation but due to Mr Baldock moving in with his daughter and her children, the only property large enough was also on the Maiden Lane estate. We are now working closely with the family to find them permanent accommodation but it is a case of waiting for appropriate properties to become available.” No attempt was being made to collect the rent on the Baldocks’ home.

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