Warden put two tickets on suicide woman's car

Parked at an awkward angle beside the Thames at Putney, there was plenty about Loraine Lawrence's car to arouse suspicion: the keys were still in the ignition, it was unlocked and her handbag was in full view.

The traffic warden slapped on a parking ticket anyway, and when the car was there the following day the same warden wrote out another.

In fact Loraine Lawrence was dead.

Overwhelmed with grief after the death of her brother Patrick from a brain tumour, she had attempted a drug overdose. When that did not work, she drowned herself.

Her body was found downriver at Wandsworth the following day.

Now her brother Derek Deans is furious at the failure-of the traffic warden to realise anything was wrong - although he accepts that by the time the tickets were issued his sister was dead.

He said: "I find it absolutely incredible that the parking warden was so focused on issuing a ticket that he did not notice anything else.

"When my brother found her car it was unlocked, the keys were in the ignition and her handbag was in view. It had obviously been abandoned, yet it had not one but two parking tickets on it, issued by the same warden."

Ms Lawrence's body had already been found when Mr Deans discovered a suicide note in his sister's bedroom.

She had written: "OD has not worked. Going to Putney Bridge where car will be."

Loraine was a popular and highly respected employee at Goldman Sachs in the City where she worked as a receptionist. She had been caring for her dying brother.

"She seemed to be coping but inwardly she was going to pieces," said Mr Deans.

At an inquest last week Westminster Coroner Paul Knapman recorded a verdict of suicide by drowning.

A Wandsworth council spokesman said: "Our sympathies go out to the family and friends of the deceased. We have cancelled the tickets.

"However, we don't believe criticism of the parking attendant is justified. The attendant would not be expected to look for the keys or check the doors."

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