A UNIVERSITY lecturer killed herself three weeks after warning a council she could no longer cope with living next to a drugs den.
Suzanne Dow had suffered months of abuse from the tenants of a house owned by Browtowe Borough Council.
Yet the council made only "idle, empty threats" to the tenants – despite a series of complaints stretching back more than a year.
Dr Dow, of Derby Street, Beeston, was 33 when she took her own life. She had complained about being verbally abused and threatened, but the council failed to treat her complaints seriously enough.
Dr Dow's mother said this – coupled with problems in her personal life – was too much for her gifted daughter.
She had also been sexually abused as a child and had love life problems.
Maureen Dow said: "She used to ring me in tears because she was too frightened to get to sleep. No one should have to live in that situation. They let her down."
The house next door was described as a "crack den" by Notts Coroner Mairin Casey during an inquest.
In her final letter to the council, Dr Dow, a French lecturer at the University of Nottingham, wrote how she could not sleep, and how she had reached the "limits of her tolerance".
The council said it had taken the coroner's comments "very seriously".
