Dawlish News

A schizophrenic woman jumped to her death just 24 hours after "begging" psychiatric staff to allow her back into a health unit in Torquay. The family of Linda Hammond, 52, claim she had pleaded with staff at the Haytor Unit to let her return to the place where she felt safe. The following day she was dead after leaping from a parapet at the Sefton Hall nursing home in Plantation Terrace, Dawlish. Linda's parents, Norman and Sylvia Wilson, who live in Berkeley Rise, Shiphay, Torquay, said they blamed no one for Linda's death. Their comments came after South Devon coroner Ian Arrow returned a verdict that Linda took her own life on Sunday September 14. Mrs Wilson said afterwards: "Linda was with us at home on the Saturday. She was the worst state we had ever seen her. She phoned the Haytor Unit and cried and begged for them to let her in. They said she couldn't just walk in. She needed a doctor's permission."