Lecturer told council about neighbour abuse

A university lecturer killed herself three weeks after warning council that she could not cope with living next door to a drugs den.

The This is Nottingham website reported that Dr Suzanne Dow had lodged complaints with Browtowe Borough Council for over a year after suffering abuse from her neighbours.

In her final letter to the council, Dr Dow, pictured, a French lecturer at the University of Nottingham who took her life in October 2011 at the age of 33, wrote how she could not sleep and how she had reached the "limits of her tolerance".

Nottinghamshire Coroner Mairin Casey said in an inquest last week that the council had failed Dr Dow after issuing her neighbours with just "idle, empty threats". The council countered that it had taken the coroner's comments "very seriously".