Coroner blasts police over search

A coroner has accused police of a lack of common sense, after they failed to find an 82-year-old woman who died near her Newcastle home.

Police searched as far as Birmingham after Beatrice Johnson wandered off from her Gosforth bungalow in 2007.

Her body was found nine days later, 50yds (45m) away.

Northumbria Police admitted widening the search was one of the reasons for their failure. A verdict of accidental death was recorded.

At a coroners inquest on Friday, Newcastle coroner David Mitford blamed a "lack of common sense" and lack of local knowledge for the failure of the search.

Mrs Johnson, of Belsay Gardens, had lived in Birmingham as a child.

The pensioner who had Alzheimer's disease, left her home in just nightwear and died from hypothermia.

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