APPENDIX 103
Memorandum submitted by Jean Heslop
In response to your letter on 17 February concerning
intrusive media coverage.
In September of 1999 I found my daughter hanging
from a cable that she had hooked up to something in the loft.
Jane was a manic depressive who had a history of bad nerves. However,
the Pontefract and Castleford Express reported that she
had been an alcoholic with a history of drug abuse (at no time
had Jane been an alcoholic and the tablets that Jane was on were
prescription drugs from her GP). They also said I had ignored
her pleas for help which wasn't true: at no time that day had
Jane threatened to kill herself, although she had done on previous
occasions.
My husband had a heart attack five weeks after
Jane's death and is now deceased. He never got over Jane's death
and yet we were portrayed as totally uncaring in the local paper.
After speaking to the Coroner and Jane's GP, I went to the Pontefract
and Castleford Express office and was told that no-one was
available to speak to me. I started to ring them up and was told
when I rang the Pontefract office to ring the Castleford office
and vice versa. Eventually I was told I was a nuisance and to
go and tell someone down at Morrisons supermarket or a dustbin
man. I was shocked that they would speak to someone in such a
way at a time when I was distraught with grief.
I did eventually get an apology after Mike Jempson
of Presswise took it up for me for which I am eternally grateful.
March 2003
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