Anya Carter's Dolphin Square death plunge
Published: 6th May, 2011
by TOM FOOT
A FORMER employee of an investment firm who died after plunging from an eighth-floor luxury apartment had suffered from “paranoid delusions”, an inquest heard.
Anya Carter, 39, of Dolphin Square, Pimlico, was diagnosed with depression after losing her job as a personal assistant at financial services company The Blackstone Group, it was said. Ms Carter, a fluent French-speaker and former pupil at a Swiss finishing school, was a psychiatric in-patient at Pimlico’s Gordon Hospital at the time of her death on June 27 last year.
On Wednesday, Westminster Coroner’s Court heard Ms Carter believed people were plotting to kill her, refused hospital food and had “fleetingly” suggested she might commit suicide.
However, doctors believed her condition was improving and had granted her permission to take short periods of supervised “leave” outside of wards.
Nurse Gemma White told the inquest that on the evening of June 27 Ms Carter had requested to go out and that she had accompanied her back to her eighth floor home in Dolphin Square.
Addressing Ms White, Dr Radcliffe said: “She locked the door… At that point you realised that you were in her flat and you were running out of leave time?”
Ms White replied that she had felt “concerned” but “didn’t want to say to her that we had to leave her flat as I thought that might make the situation worse”.
Ms Carter went into the toilet and locked the door behind her adding she “wouldn’t be a minute”.
The police arrived and found Ms Carter on the ground outside the apartment block. The court heard they had found no evidence of suspicious circumstances.
Dr Jan Wise from Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust said a “sudden untoward incident” report carried out following Ms Carter’s death found there had been “no appreciable risk” of her taking her life.
Dr Radcliffe said: “In this case this was an unscheduled home visit. Ms White was unfamiliar with the surroundings of Dolphin Square and it was only apparent what was going on at a late stage by which time she was trapped inside a flat with a patient.”
Verdict: Open.