THE family of Laura Winham, whose body lay undiscovered in her council flat for more than three years, say a catalogue of failings caused her to be abandoned and left to die.

In the years before her remains were found, Laura’s relatives had found themselves in a “heart-breaking” situation, unable to maintain contact because her schizophrenia made her believe they would harm her.

Family members spoke out before a coroner’s hearing that was held on Monday to establish the scope of a full inquest due to be held in April.

Having failed to contact 38-year-old Laura in her flat in Devonshire Avenue, Sheerwater, her close relatives eventually stepped back, believing that she was being cared for by social workers and mental health teams.

Laura’s sister Nicky said it was heart-breaking and tragic to think of how she lived in her last few years, unable to ask for help and without anyone there for her.

“Her journey with mental health has been incredibly tough,” said Nicky. “She grew up in a loving, supportive family, she had worked so hard to overcome her deafness and went to a mainstream school.

“She attended college and gained a degree at university. She was sociable, had friends and worked part-time.

“But then our very much-loved younger sister completely changed in front of our own eyes.

“She believed all these voices in her head which were turning her against us, her own family. It put us in this terribly sad position of not knowing what to do for the best.

“And it was frightening. We couldn’t get through to her, each time we tried she seemed to get worse. She would disappear in her car, driving round the country, and we did not know where she was. She was very clearly suffering from hallucinations and feelings of being persecuted.

“After we managed to get her sectioned for the first time in 2006, we believed she would get the help she needed and normal life would resume, but it never did.”

Nicky said Laura refused to move back to the family home after leaving hospital and would not have any contact with her parents.

She and her brother Roy did manage to maintain some “inconsistent, tense and fragile” contact in the first few years.

“Contact with us seemed to put her under enormous strain and we always worried could make her worse again,” added Nicky. “We would try but it always had to be on her terms and slowly over the years the contact lessened and eventually stopped.

“As a family we weren’t given any help to deal with her illness, she refused to see us and, in the end, we very sadly had to respect her wishes and leave her to professionals who support people like her every day.”

In a statement issued by the family’s solicitors, Hudgell, her relatives say they will demand answers when the inquest is held as to how somebody who was known to various bodies as being vulnerable, and of poor mental health, could be abandoned.

Iftikhar Manzoor, of Hudgell Solicitors in Woking is acting for the family.

He said the authorities who were meant to care for Laura missed many opportunities to help her.

“There were so many red flags missed,” he added. “This is a hugely tragic and sad case. It is a life of a vulnerable person lost, because she was lost in a failing system.”