A debt-ridden secretary for NALGO killed herself

A debt-ridden secretary for NALGO killed herself after audi
tors began investigating suspicious financial deals at her work,
an inquest heard.

Lynda Johnstone, 33, from Ayr, Strathclyde, died a slow and
agonising death after overdosing on paracetamol.

Southwark Coroners Court, London, heard that just a few years
ago Miss Johnstone had been bailed out by her parents after
amassing credit card debts running into thousands of pounds.

Not long afterwards, the credit card companies issued her with
a new set of cards and she was soon deep in debt again, the
inquest was told.

At about the same time the auditors at NALGO came in to check
the books and she found herself under investigation.

On November 21 last year, she parked her car on the Ayr sea

front and swallowed 50 paracetamol tablets from a jar she had
bought earlier that morning.

The police later moved her on, unaware that beside her were
letters she had written to her boyfriend and parents in which she
described how she was living in ‘some terrible nightmare.

‘

She drove off but soon after tried to drive her car over an
embankment, the court heard.

That suicide bid failed but the paracetamol she had taken had
already ensured an incurable, slow and painful death.

A pathologist told the inquest that by the time Miss Johnstone
confided in her mother about the overdose a day later, it was too
late to stop the liver failure brought on by the drug.

She was rushed to hospital in Kilmarnock.

They transferred her

to Kings College Hospital in London, where the most sophisticated
treatment for paracetamol is available.

But even they could do no more than make her final days as
painless as possible.

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The dead woman’s brother, Mr Ken Johnstone from Priory Street,
Greenwich, south east London, visited her in hospital shortly
before she died.

‘I didn’t see her until she wasn’t coherent any more.

She was
in agony.

‘
Miss Johnstone, from Thompson Street, Ayr, died on November 27.

Her brother said he believed the shame of her debts and the
investigation had driven her to take her own life.

He also hit out at the companies which had re-issued her
credit cards.

Coroner, Sir Montague Levine, described the death as ‘terribly
sad.

‘
‘She had been involved in overspending in the past and had
been bailed out by her parents.

‘This was a second episode.

‘Also hanging over her was the investigation pending in relation
to her work and finances.

‘She had not been charged – it was only an investigation – but
obviously these two things preyed very heavily on her mind.

‘
He recorded that she died from liver failure.

A verdict that she killed herself was recorded.

ENDS