Play Brightcove video
ITV News London reporter Rags Martel speaks to Sheila Seleoane’s neighbors after her body was first discovered.
A woman’s body remained undiscovered for two years in her south-east London flat, despite the rent suddenly stopping and her gas bills not being paid.
Concerns were raised several times about the welfare of the 58-year-old occupant of the Peckham flat.
But her severely decomposed body was not discovered for two-and-a-half years, an inquest heard.
Sheila Seleoane was found by police officers after forcing entry into her third floor home on February 18, 2022 and received the discovery.
The skeletal remains of the retired former medical secretary were found in the “recovery position” in blue pajamas and a white T-shirt at her home in The Lords Court.
Due to the dates on prescription medications found on the property and the expiration date on a half-eaten dessert in the refrigerator, it was determined that she had died sometime around August 2019.
Although her body was not found for more than two years, several concerned neighbors had contacted the Peabody Trust after noticing “a strong corpse-like odor” in the building.
According to My London, a neighbor who lives below Sheila had raised her concerns with the housing association as early as September 2019 after noticing maggots and flies coming into her property from an upstairs window .
She called Peabody and reported it to the neighborhood manager, but was told that their pest control “doesn’t treat worms.” In a WhatsApp group chat, residents had expressed their concerns with one person writing in June 2020 “is she dead?” .
Peabody had also been informed that month and in April 2021 that Sheila had not been seen and that a number of letters and leaflets were taped to and around her door.
A strong odor was also reported in October 2020, with a note on the Peabody system saying, “Report of strong odor raised by a client at #12 stating that their social worker called to report ‘a strong smell like a corpse’.
The neighborhood manager had noticed this too, but attributed it to the smell of dampness.
These incidents were followed by a complaint in December 2021 about Sheila’s balcony door flapping in the wind and a concern for her welfare as she had not been seen in the building and her mat had not been replaced to its usual position after a visit from the communal cleaners.
On several occasions over the two-and-a-half-year period, the neighborhood manager had left voicemails for Sheila and on one occasion had visited the flat but received no response.
Despite being described as a “model tenant” while living and residing at The Lords Court, her missed rent payments and failure to respond to annual gas monitoring inspections did not raise any alarm bells.
As of April 2020, he was eight months in arrears with his rent and owed the landlord a total of £3,431.10. It was noted that payments from then on would be taken from her Universal Credit account and her gas supply was capped in June 2020 after an engineer visited her in April to carry out an inspection of gas security, but could not gain access to the property.
When asked during the inquest why Sheila’s unusual lack of response had not been questioned or discussed, Peabody employee Wells Choumtare said: “It’s fair to say that with the information we had, we had the image but we didn’t connect the dots.”
Letters are piled up in the letterbox outside Peckham’s flat Credit: BPM Media
Police officers were called to visit Sheila on two occasions in October 2020 but did not notice anything suspicious and did not believe there was sufficient reason to force entry to the property.
The inquest heard there had been “confusion” on the second visit by the operator who read the police computer system about whether the officer had seen and spoken to Sheila. The Peabody Trust was then informed that he had spoken to her. officer and was “safe and sound”, so the case was closed.
Speaking about the blunder, Detective Chief Inspector Amanda Mawhinney told the inquest the tapes had been sent to the district commander and a number of recommendations had been made to the procedure following a review.
His body was eventually discovered after the downstairs neighbor contacted the police.
He had noticed that the balcony door was flapping again in the wind, and upon checking Sheila’s mailbox, he noticed that there were several letters that were unopened.
Police received the call at 7:01 p.m. and decided to force entry, where she was discovered in her living room. Due to the advanced state of decomposition, an autopsy was unable to perform a full examination and his medical cause of death was given as undetermined.
In the months leading up to his death, he had suffered a health setback and had been taking medication.
An independent report was commissioned to examine the role of the Peabody Trust, which has made 37 recommendations for improvement.
The housing association’s deputy chief executive, Ashley Fox, also said that while individual processes were successfully followed, they were “followed in a silo”.
“There were opportunities where the dots could have been joined earlier,” he said. “We are very much looking forward to undertaking the independent report which makes a number of recommendations, 37 in fact, across seven different areas.” , as well as improving training and increasing the number of neighborhood managers.
Speaking at Southwark Coroner’s Court, Coroner Julian Morris said her death was ‘difficult to understand’ in 2022 and said: ‘It is clear from the evidence provided by the trust that something went wrong and was there a delay in raising the flags? Based on the evidence provided, there was no real communication between the rental, gas and neighborhood management teams.”
He continued: “The lack of rent payments, the lack of communication with all three departments and the need to limit the gas supply did not lead to any suspicion that anything was wrong.
“However, for the avoidance of doubt, I do not consider, on balance, that these actions or inactions had any effect on Ms Seleoane’s clinical condition or could have saved her life, as I have said and on balance, she was already dead.”
Sheila’s funeral took place at Croydon Crematorium with two mourners present, before her body was flown to South Africa by Peabody for burial in the family plot.
Speaking about the impact his death has had on the housing association, Mrs Fox said through tears: “I think I can say everyone was devastated, I don’t think anyone comes to work to do this job.”
Want a quick and expert briefing on the biggest news? Listen to our latest podcasts to find out what you need to know…