Residents of a Nunhead housing block where a dead woman was left in her flat for over two years have spoken of their “shock” and “trauma”.
Sheila Seleoane, 58, was discovered by police in February 2022, years after neighbours first warned housing association Peabody about her welfare.
At the inquest into her death in July 2022, the coroner said the tragedy “was difficult to fathom” and Peabody apologised for “not joining the dots”.
Neighbours first told Peabody about a “foul” smell engulfing their block in September 2019 but the trust failed to take action.
Deceased Nunhead woman lay undiscovered for two years, inquest hears
Corrina Whyte, 33, a mother-of-seven who has lived at Lord’s Court since 2006 said: “I’ve been traumatised. In the whole block you had maggots and bluebottles. They were coming from everywhere. It was horrendous.”
Over the following years, worried residents repeatedly raised concerns with the housing association about the welfare of Sheila.
They reported that letters were wedged in Sheila’s letterbox, that she had gone missing, and pleaded with police to check on the medical assistant.
When police did check on her in October 2020, a police blunder meant they told Peabody that Sheila was alive and well.
An operator, who has since left the force, misinterpreted a previous entry and conveyed the incorrect information to the housing association.
Police only stumbled across her body when, during Storm Eunice, they responded to complaints that Sheila’s door was banging in the wind.
In the months following her death, Corrina said that so many maggots dropped onto the balcony below Sheila’s flat that her neighbour had to buy a shovel to scoop them off.
Even though she lives on the ground floor while Sheila was at the top, she could still smell the “sewage smell” from her flat.
“I’ve been very depressed and to be honest this hasn’t helped. We’ve been living amongst death”, she said.
She even remembers her son playing ‘knock down ginger’ on Sheila’s door, soon after she’d died, and saying he’d heard the buzz of flies behind the door.
Corrina met Sheila on several occasions: “She was very quiet, very polite. She loved to stare at my children which suggests she might have been lonely.”
“I hate this house now. Going inside there’s just a chill because you know what you’ve been living near”, she said.
She said she blames Peabody and that neighbours did everything they could to warn the trust that Sheila might not be okay.
Fighting tears, she said she feels guilty for not climbing into the flat to get Sheila’s body out, even though she had no idea she’d died at the time. “We are all suffering for Sheila,” she said.
Corrina’s partner Danny Fitzgerald, also a resident at Lord’s Court, said after finding out what had happened “my brain for a month was gone – I was thinking all mad things”.
Another neighbour who has lived at Lord’s Court since 2006 only gave his name as ‘Senior’. He said: “I didn’t spend a lot of time with her but she was really nice and when I heard I was shocked.
“We were having conversations about the maggots for a couple of years. They [Peabody] did nothing. It definitely could have been avoided.
“The bottom line is there are policies and procedures in place but housing associations don’t look after their tenants.”
Colin Dyke, 66, a St Mary’s Road resident living opposite Lord’s Court, says these incidents “happen everywhere”.
Around 2008, he spent three or four years refitting Lambeth Council-owned properties after their tenants had died.
He remembers one summer when colleagues warned him the flat he was about to strip had housed a dead man for eight months.