Investigation Of Officer Involved With One Of 'Chemical Suicide' Victims Continues

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"Vulnerable women" who 'met' on a suicide website were both victims of stalking

Westminster Coroners Court heard today how on 30th September 2010 33 year old Riley Lison-Taylor, and 37 year old Jaime Perlman were discovered dead in a sealed cupboard in a flat in Norman Court on Pentlow Street.

The original team that were called discovered that the letter box and door were sealed and so they called a specialist team to enter the flat.

The court heard that the couple had met five days earlier through a website that specialises in suicide information - according to a note left by Ms Perlman this was her third attempt at suicide.

The police had been alerted by Gary Murray, a friend of Ms Lison-Taylor who was concerned that her depression had increased following a recent court case.

Both women had suffered depression & both had been victims of stalking which they had reported to the police but according to their friends neither felt that they had been taken seriously and had complained to the police authorities of their treatment.




At the Pentlow Street flat the victims had left letters criticising the officers who had handled their harassment cases. Coroner Dr Shirley Radcliffe said these letters indicated dissatisfaction and complaints about the police investigation into their stalking allegations.

The inquest heard that Miss Lison-Taylor, who worked as an escort, fell in love with the investigating officer of the stalking case, later she claimed he had "manipulated her and played with her vulnerability" - the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) upheld two of her six complaints.

The IPCC found text contact from the investigating officer "inappropriate" and reported that he should have passed on her case to a colleague when requested by Miss Lison-Taylor. e reading the main story However it termed the separate stalking investigations thorough and adequate. The officer was subsequently given management action - a reprimand short of a formal warning.

The IPCC has an ongoing investigation in to one of the officers that Ms Perlman, who lived in Kingston and had worked as a dominatrix, complained about and found that one officer had breached conduct regulations by failing to complete a form during a meeting with her in April 2010. This officer has received management action.

The coroner heard that during the IPCC investigation a number of unrelated allegations came to light against a detective constable who took on the original case in 2009. This officer has been interviewed under criminal caution and a file is currently with the Crown Prosecution Service relating to 13 cases of suspicion of misconduct in a public office, and was dismissed from the Met on 21 April for misconduct, in matters unrelated to Miss Perlman's case.

Dr Radcliffe recorded two verdicts of suicide,saying:
"It would seem to me that there were an awful lot of difficulties that these women faced in their lives. They were very vulnerable people and they had been through a very difficult psychiatric past.They became very involved in suicidal ideas and they had a number of reasons for feeling depressed and anxious. Being stalked undoubtedly is one of the most difficult things they would have had to face."