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Friday 9th December, 2005

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By SUNITA RAPPAI

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‘Troubled’ widow lay dead for seven weeks

A WOMAN described by neighbours as troubled and in desperate need of help lay dead in her flat for seven weeks before her body was discovered.
The woman, thought to be Deniz Kozen, a 42-year-old widow from Parsifal Road, West Hampstead, was discovered by police on November 19.
Ms Kozen, who was found in the hallway of her one-bedroom council flat, was last seen alive in September.
The gruesome discovery was only made after a downstairs neighbour found maggots crawling in his bed. He believed they had dropped through the ceiling from the flat upstairs and contacted police.
Neighbour Naomi Bedoya wrote to the district housing office warning that Ms Kozen “was an accident waiting to happen”.
In a letter written on August 1 last year – after an incident where a dazed and pyjama-clad Ms Kozen was found outside the building – Ms Bedoya wrote: “Ms Kozen has serious health problems. We are concerned in case something with fatal consequences happens to her or to other members of the house.”
In another letter dated December 22, Ms Bedoya wrote to officers again after a postman refused to deliver letters to tenants because of Ms Kozen’s behaviour.
She was sent a “nuisance diary” to fill in and was told that officers had written to Ms Kozen asking her to take steps to prevent her “anti-social behaviour”.
Ms Bedoya said: “She was aggressive because of her mental state. She told me she was not well and she wanted to be loved.
“She had this idea we were trying to get rid of her so it was difficult to get close to her. She needed help and she did not get it.”
A Town Hall spokesman said that housing officers “had no reason to suspect that such a terrible thing could happen”.
He added: “She was a long standing tenant and she was up to date with her rent.”
Labour councillor Maggie Cosin, executive member for Adult Social Services said: “My understanding is that her GP referred her to a psychiatrist but she did not want to go. She was in a hospital for a period around two years ago and when she was released social services followed it up.
“Care was offered to her and it was turned down. We could not force her to keep appointments and we could not force help. There is nothing Camden can do if a patient turns down care.”
West Hampstead Lib Dem councillor Flick Rea said: “Her death is a sad indictment of modern society. People are isolated and neighbours are not neighbours in the way they used to be.
“Tenants report things, someone looks at them, then everyone moves on. It is not a lack of caring. There are just too many people who are living alone, alienated from others because of their behaviour.”
A police spokesman said: “Police were called on 19th November and gained entry where a female was found deceased. At that stage, there were no suspicious circumstances.”
An inquest has been opened and adjourned into Ms Kozen’s death.

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