Langdon House in Leather Lane where Maria Kelly was found four months after she died. The Gray’s Inn Road Medical Centre did not respond to our queries about the coroner’s comments and missed chances to find her

A VULNERABLE woman lay dead in her Clerkenwell flat for approximately four months before she was found by police after a neighbour raised the alarm.

Maria Kelly, 54, was found “in a partial state of mummification” in her home in Langdon House, Leather Lane, an inquest heard.

A neighbour told the Tribune the last time she saw Ms Kelly was in January. She was discovered on May 15.

St Pancras coroner Mary Hassell has now issued a warning to a GP practice and an NHS mental health team about why the case was not escalated after many failed attempts to contact her, including unanswered home visits.

Ms Kelly lived on her own and had multiple physical and mental health issues including chronic kidney disease, schizophrenia, depression, anorexia and a previous cancer diagnosis.

Judith Milner lived below Ms Kelly and contacted her housing officer on the Camden side of the borough border in May after she became concerned about her whereabouts.

She said: “It drives me nuts, really, if somebody is vulnerable, they need care. It’s elementary. It’s incredibly sad.”

Records show that there had been no contact with her doctors at the Gray’s Inn Road Medical Centre since June 2023 and no contact with the South Camden Rehabilitation and Recovery Team since August of that year when she had last been issued repeat medication.

There were 31 failed encounters for mental health reviews, as well as blood tests and a bowel screening. There were 12 unsuccessful home visits and six failed phone attempts recorded by the mental health team.

The coroner said in her report on the case: “Despite this, no welfare check was undertaken, nor any request for a welfare check made to her housing officer or police, until neighbours raised concerns on 14 May 2024.”

The last time Ms Milner physically saw her was on January 5.

She said after that: “I hadn’t heard her telly, hadn’t heard her washing machine. I hadn’t seen her going in and out doing her shopping. It’s either two or three weeks before May 13 when I rang our housing officer. I’d actually been up and knocked on her door, rang on her bell, tried through the letter box as well, and got no answer.

“There was no smell of death, no flies buzzing around. It wouldn’t lead you to believe that there might be a dead body in the flat. Then a few weeks after that I thought this is really peculiar.
Still no noises, no nothing, no sightings.”

After calling their housing officer, a social worker knocked on Ms Kelly’s door the following day.

Later, police arrived and knocked it down and made the grim discovery.

Ms Kelly’s local councillor Awale Olad said: “We must learn lessons from the coroner’s report.

Maria’s health difficulties were clearly very well documented and there should have been more care and support in place for her continued wellbeing.

“Why she was left unattended for so long is beyond me. There are a lot of questions that need to be answered, particularly why someone with a combination of debilitating health problems and mental health difficulties was left to fend for themselves.”

Ms Milner said she was neighbourly with Ms Kelly, but they were not close. She was already living there when Ms Milner moved into Langdon House in 1997.

“She didn’t mix with people particularly. She was incredibly shy. She did come with me once to go on the London Eye.

“I don’t know how long the Kelly family had lived here, but there are still some people [in Langdon House] who would have watched Maria grow up.”

A nearby neighbour, Ieva Zamislajeva, said: “This is a heartbreaking reminder of the vulnerabilities faced by those living in isolation. It’s tragic to think that a woman could lay undiscovered for months in her London flat.

“This situation calls for urgent reforms in welfare and housing support, ensuring that people, especially the elderly and vulnerable, are not forgotten or neglected. Systems should be in place to check on those who may be at risk, so that such a tragedy never happens again.”

A Camden Council spokesperson said: “Our deepest sympathies are with all those that knew Ms Kelly.

“We know that Ms Kelly was known to a number of local health and care services and we are working with those organisations to look into what happened leading up to Ms Kelly’s tragic death.”

While a number of questions remain unanswered, the Gray’s Inn Road Medical Centre did not respond to requests for comment.

A spokesperson for North London Mental Health Partnership said: “We would like to offer our deepest condolences to Maria Kelly’s family. We are reviewing all aspects of the inquest into her death to learn from it.

“It would not be appropriate to comment further until we have responded in full to the coroner.”