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PENSIONER IN FALL TRAGEDY
Neighbour’s hell after elderly friend collapsed on his doorstep
THE friend of a woman who collapsed and died on his doorstep has told neighbours “I’m not a murderer”, after claiming he had been branded the “butcher of Warwick Estate” in a vicious hate campaign.
Mr Ian Huckle-Debrett told the West End Extra he had been shut out, becoming the victim of slanderous rumours since the death of his friend Abina Downey in the Warwick Avenue block last month.
The frail 87-year-old tripped and fell outside his flat in the middle of the night.
A confused Ms Downey – who suffered from dementia – didn’t see the one-and-a-half inch doorstep when she confronted Mr Debrett after becoming convinced he had stolen her keys, an inquest heard on Wednesday.
He told the court that as he phoned the police to get assistance in helping her back to her flat two floors below, she tried to push past him but lost her footing and fell to the floor in what proved to be a fatal accident.
After being quizzed at Paddington Green police station, Mr Debrett said officers let him go, absolving him of any blame. But when he returned home the gossip began, making his life a living hell ever since.
“It’s been an absolute nightmare,” he told the West End Extra. “Nobody cared about that poor woman. I was the only person who used to look out for her. Now nobody will so much as look at me.”
Mr Debrett was praised by the coroner at Westminster Coroner’s Court on Wednesday for the way he looked out for his elderly neighbour, after hearing how he did her shopping, fed her pets, and on more than once occasion tried to get social services to intervene as her mental health rapidly deteriorated. Mr Debrett had befriended her when she moved to the estate seven years ago.
Police told the court that in the early hours of July 2 Ms Downey had called the police to say someone had stolen an electric heater from her flat. An officer who had previous dealings with Ms Downey, always false alarms, responded to the call. When he arrived at the address he found her in her nightclothes, but could not get her to make a coherent allegation. He helped her back to her flat and spoke of coming up “against a brick wall”, when trying to get her help from social services, the ambulance service and a nearby mental health centre.
In evidence, Mr Debrett said that later on that evening Ms Downey went round to his flat accusing him of stealing her keys that she had forgotten were hanging around her neck. On answering the door and realising her distress but not feeling able to act alone, he called the police from his hall to help calm her down. While he was on the phone to police, Ms Downey slipped on his doorstep and died.
Dr Shirley Radcliffe said the public should be in no doubt that Mr Debrett was exonarted. She went on to lament the way Ms Downey had been passed around different agencies without anyone intervening. |
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