A WOMAN who lay dead in her Bournemouth flat for seven years had been facing disciplinary action at work shortly before the time that she was believed to have died, an inquest heard this morning.

As reported in the Daily Echo, the mummified body of Anne Leitrim was found in the flat in Tolpuddle Gardens, Muscliff, on June 24 this year.

Bailiffs had been called because of non-payment of the mortgage and they made the grim find.

PC Andrew Scarratt, who was called to the scene, told the inquest that there was a calendar on the wall dated June 2007, along with a TV guide for the week of June 16 of that year.

The flat was a mess, he said, with a huge pile of post behind the front door.

Miss Leitrim's badly-decomposed body was near her bed and it was clear that it had been there a long time.

A note was found, which read, incorrectly: “My doctors has done anything wrong. I love my babies. Goodbye Janet.”

A post mortem report said that the body was in 'a state of advanced mummification'.

An internal exam and toxicology tests were impossible, so no cause of death could be ascertained.

In a statement, Miss Leitrim's sister, Katherine Clarke, said that Miss Leitrim had been born in Glasgow in October 1948.

A premature baby, she had not been expected to survive.

Miss Leitrim, who had been involved in the Guides, left school at 16 and later trained as a nurse, working in Glasgow, Barnet and then St Thomas' Hospital in London.

She bought the flat in Bournemouth in the 1970s and continued to work in London, living there while she was on duty.

Around 20 years ago, Mrs Clarke said, Miss Leitrim lost contact with her family.

“Anne's family can offer no reason as to why this happened,” she said.

Coroner's officer Allan Young said that Miss Leitrim's GP last saw her on June 11, 2007, and reported that she had a high level of anxiety, which she had a long history of.

Fiona Kennedy, from human resources at Homerton University Hospital in London, where she worked as a neonatal nurse, said that allegations had been made of inappropriate conduct towards a child in her care.

She had been given a final written warning, but a back-to-work programme had been put in place.

But Miss Leitrim did not attend further appointments and did not respond to letters and phone calls from the hospital.

With no next of kin on file, she was put on unauthorised absence in August 2007 and her employment terminated that November.

Coroner Sheriff Payne said: “She had no social life down here (in Bournemouth); people didn't know who she was to any great extent.”

He added: “The note is vague; it could be treated as a suicide note.”

But, he said: “But there's no physical evidence at the scene to indicate that she's taken her life.”

With no cause of death and no evidence, the coroner said he had no alternative but to record an open verdict.