A man has today been charged with trying to fraudulently obtain money after he was caught trying to cash a local pensioners payment book at Kirkby Post office on Friday. The book was stolen off a pensioner found dead in suspicious circumstances in Oak Tower on Roughwood Drive on Friday 9th May. The man charged is Ian West.

Annie Sanderson, 80, was discovered dead, slumped behind the door in her flat on the second floor of Oak Tower in Kirkby. Reports so far indicate the lady may have lay dead for up to a week before her body was found on Friday. There were no apparent signs of physical injury but a post mortem has shown that she suffered a pulmonary embolism. She had been burgled, but whether this was prior to the death, during it, or afterwards is not known. If she died after or whilst being burgled, she has been killed no matter what the law says.

Police tried to help

Her pension books had been stolen and an attempt was made to cash them at a local post office. Police were alerted and went to the flat where local Police found the body of Annie who was well known to them as a vulnerable tenant. The Police here are to be congratulated for trying to look after this woman. They had pushed for her to be re-housed and she was to have left for sheltered accommodation next week.

Housing Trust leaves vulnerable Woman to die alone.

Mrs Sanderson lived on her own in Oak Towers in Roughwood Drive, Kirkby. She was the sole occupant on the floor of her block of flats. All of the other flats on her floor are boarded up and empty. The tenants have been charged for security but no patrols were made and the Housing Trust ignored pleas from Tenants to move the elderly and to provide security and a live in caretaker. If they had done so, Annie Sanderson may well have been alive today.

Below, Oak Tower, the home of Annie and other vulnerable people still there

SCUM

Flowers were placed outside her home today as a local man who had squatted in the Tower Block was charged at Huyton Magistrates with theft and two counts of attempted deception. Ian West, is said to be of 'no fixed abode' but was known by tenants to be partly living in another vulnerable elderly persons flat in Oak Tower. The Housing Trust has been alerted on many occasions as to the drug addicts who target the elderly. In the Tower Block itself, there are numerous blood stains on the walls where junkies inject themselves.

The Police Say………

A police spokeswoman said: "The woman was found dead when the police arrived. A member of her family had also contacted us after being concerned for her welfare. We are not sure exactly what day the burglary happened, but we believe she died on the same day. It could have been up to a week ago. There is no suggestion that she was attacked by the burglar but her family thinks the shock may have contributed to her death."

An inquest has been opened and adjourned by the Knowsley Coroner and investigations are continuing.

Kirkby Times Says

This sad incident was almost predicted by this website, in the year and 3 months this website has been up and running we have published over 700 photos of the disgraceful conditions in the Tower Block. The following quotes relate to Oak Towers and the plight of the elderly and the lack of any action from Knowsley housing Trust and other concerned parties.

"No Caretaker will live in the Block, yet the tenants, many of whom were elderly, are left to live alone unprotected in appalling conditions."

"The past Week or so has seen incidents ranging from aggravated burglary on a tenant, someone collapsing outside the Block and the usual Junkies."

"Look below at the prison which one poor old pensioner lived in. She left 2 years ago due to vandalism, Knowsley Council deserve to be dragged to a prison cell for letting our old folk live in these conditions. Look below and tell me I'm wrong............"

"Tenants in these Tower Blocks are still being charged for security. Truth is it's easier to find a heroin dealer or vandal than a security guard"

"The people who built Hi Rise blocks should be dragged screaming from whatever luxury house they occupy and be made to compensate every last Working Class Person who has had to live in the hell of a Tower Block."

"You'd like to see the blokes who designed the place bought back and taken on a tour, let them look at the boarded up flats which were once homes to old folk and families, let them read the new graffiti and guess at the faded graffiti. See the pi** stained floors and the lifts which smell like toilets because they are toilets, without a flush to keep them clean. The blokes who built the flats should be taken to the top floor and given the choice of jumping or living there."

"Knowsley Housing Trust has continued to ignore disgraceful conditions as reported by Kirkby Times in our series of articles, reports, witness accounts, photography and video. John Mc Hale did acknowledge months ago that the 'situation was being reviewed' , but communication with tenants has become a Wall of Silence and the Trust seems content to let a bad situation become much worse by simply doing nothing.

"Knowsley Housing Trust has simply abandoned certain Tower Blocks. Knowsley Councils legacy seems to be continued as residents are left in conditions which NONE of the Housing Trust Management would live in. Numerous sections of the Agreement are not being adhered to by the Trust. Under the Trusts Obligations, Section 2, the trust clearly breaches its own Obligations in sections 2.3.2, 2.3.3, 2.3.5, 2.3.7, 2.5, 2.6, possibly 2.8, and definitely 2.9. That is MOST of the Trusts Obligations to certain tenants NOT being carried out."

"Its seems our old folk are increasingly becoming the prey of the lowlife who seem to think mugging old age pensioners is a legitimate way of funding their drug habits. These cowardly creatures have become an unfortunate part of our society, and the problem is getting worse."

RIP Annie. To die like this in some slum Tower Block is sad beyond belief.

More here on the Abuse of our Elderly, how to tackle it and praise for our old folk, the last of the magnificent generation who fought for freedom peace and equality and built this Country.

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