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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
National
Patrick Butler Social policy editor

Vulnerable woman lay dead in Surrey flat for more than three years

Laura Winham
Laura Winham had schizophrenia, struggled to look after herself, and had become estranged from her family. Photograph: Hudgell Solicitors

A severely mentally ill woman whose dead body lay in her home unnoticed for more than three years was effectively “abandoned and left to die” by NHS and social services who missed repeated chances to save her, her family has alleged.

Laura Winham, 38, had schizophrenia, struggled to look after herself, and had become estranged from her family. She was found in a “mummified, almost skeletal state” at her social housing flat in Woking, Surrey, by police and relatives in May 2021.

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