The desperate family of a man whose body was found floating in the Thames with weights tied to his hands have spoken of their horror since police told them of his death.
Damien Lewis’ body was discovered in the river near Westminster Pier, 13 miles from his last known address in Ilford.
As police were pulling him from the water they found a rope tied around each wrist with a two kg dumbbell attached.
Tragically for the Lewis family, his father Gary died of a heart attack triggered by a blood clot in his leg two months after they got the awful news.
His daughter Paula says the family believes the stress of the death of her brother - nicknamed George of the jungle for his love of climbing and reclusiveness - caused her father’s heart attack.
She told My London : “A blow-up boat was out on the river and [someone] spotted something in the water they said looked kind of suspicious.
“They went over to take a look and realised it was someone face down. As they were pulling him out of the water they [saw] there was a rope tied around each wrist and a dumbbell attached to the rope weighing two kilogrammes each.
“Mum started screaming and crying asking ‘what's happened?’ going crazy. The police officers just stood there I felt they had little to no compassion, they just said ‘we've just been told to tell you this’ and that was it.
“He didn't have shoes and socks or a jacket on but he had a bunch of very thin hair tied on the top of his head, which he's never had in his life.
“Part of his autism and OCD was that he wouldn't let anyone see his head for maybe six years.
“He slept with a hood tied around his head and never moved it. He used to go in the bathroom and burn his hair with a lighter, that was his way of cutting it.
“He was always calling up asking questions, my dad was trying to find out more about what happened.
“We think the stress of it all killed him.”
Damien had been reported missing from his assisted living home on August 31 last year. His body was found on September 5 but it was another three weeks before police could identify him.
The delay meant investigating officers were unable to gain CCTV or other evidence about where Damien went into the water.
Considered vulnerable by his relatives, at the time of his disappearance Damien was meant to have been living in supported accommodation because of his severe learning difficulties, autism and obsessive-compulsive disorder.
Paula has vowed to discover what had happened to her brother
A Metropolitan Police spokesman said the post-mortem examination confirmed Damien had died as a result of drowning and “found no evidence of any suspicious circumstances and officers concluded the death was unexpected, but not suspicious.”
They added “officers assisted with preparing a report for the coroner. Our enquiries, as well as a post-mortem examination, found no evidence of any third-party involvement in the man's death. We await the conclusion of the coroner.”
Paula and the family are fighting for an open verdict when it goes to the coroner’s court as they believe there are gaps around Damien’s disappearance which will provide the answers his father was never able to get.
