Two women killed themselves with poison gas five days after meeting online, inquest told

This article is more than 8 years old

This article is more than 8 years old

Two women who worked in the sex industry killed themselves in a suicide pact after meeting online, an inquest has heard.

In the days before they killed themselves, Riley Lison-Taylor, 33, and Jaime Perlman, 37, discovered remarkable similarities in their lives. Both women worked in the sex industry, both women had been stalked by clients and both had complained that the Metropolitan police had not done enough to investigate the allegations against the men.

Within five days of meeting online, the pair killed themselves by inhaling poisonous fumes in September last year. Notes left at a flat detailed their complaints against police officers, whom the women claimed had failed to properly investigate men who had stalked them, the inquest at Westminster coroners court heard.

Police found the women's bodies at the flat which was owned by Women's Pioneer Housing, a charity that provides affordable housing to single women.

Detective Inspector Glen Lloyd said officers discovered signs stating: "Do not enter, poisonous gas".

Police called in specialist units who sent a probe in through the letter box and found poisonous gases inside.

Specialist officers wearing chemical suits entered the flat and opened a cupboard door and found the bodies inside.

DI Lloyd said: "They were lying together on a duvet with pillows ... They both had headphones on, it would appear attached to music."

Suicide notes and letters of complaint about the police were found in the hallway.

A specialist post mortem revealed that both women died of inhaling a toxic gas. The inquest heard evidence from Dr Asley Fegan-Brown, the pathologist, who said: "This is an increasingly common suicidal method and information present at the scene would suggest the individuals knew about this."

The inquest heard that the women had only met online a week before their deaths and had bonded over "quite remarkable similarities" before taking their own lives.

In addition to their complaints against the police, the pair had previously worked in the beauty industry and had a history of psychiatric problems.

Lison-Taylor, who had spent time in care and suffered from anxiety, became a sex worker in 2007 after the collapse of her once-successful beauty salon. In May 2008 she complained to police that she was being stalked.

Perlman, a mother of one, had left her husband and moved to a flat in Surbiton, Surrey, before also finding work in the sex industry.

She detailed in her suicide note how she had tried to kill herself three times and had spent the last year tidying up her affairs so "there was no trace of her life". Through her work in a club, she came into contact with a man who began to stalk her, the inquest heard.

After the womens' deaths last year the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) began an investigation. The IPCC inquiries into the womens' complaints were published at the conclusion of the inquest on Tuesday.

The IPCC found that the police had investigated the individual stalking allegations correctly in the case of Lison-Taylor and the stalker was given a life-long restraining order to stay away from her.

But one of the officers involved in Perlman's case, a detective constable in a specialist Sapphire sexual offences unit, has now been dismissed after investigations uncovered a string of alleged problems with his work in the unit.

The officer, detective constable Ryan Coleman Farrow, is alleged to have written statements and letters to vulnerable victims wrongly stating inquiries into their cases had been discontinued. The IPCC has passed a report on the case to the Crown Prosecution Service, which is considering charges against Coleman Farrow, although none of them relate to his handling of Perlman's case.

The Guardian contacted Coleman Farrow's lawyers for comment but they did not respond.

Dr Shirley Radcliffe, the coroner, recorded a verdict of suicide. She said the women shared quite remarkable similarities. "Both were unknown to each other and it would appear they from the investigation that they met through an internet site, a suicide information site. One can only imagine they realised exactly how much they had in common."

• Samaritans offer emotional support on 08457 909090 or email jo@samaritans.org