Highgate Mental Health Centre

THE family of a talented and much-loved writer and dancer who died at a mental health hospital said they are “upset and disappointed” that she was able to end her own life in a place where she “should have been safe”, an inquest has heard.

Louise Crane, 39, died by taking her own life last September at the Highgate Mental Health Centre where she was a patient.

At an inquest into her death that began on Monday, one of Ms Crane’s brothers, Alexander, described her as a “much longed-for and loved daughter” who excelled at ballet from an early age, achieved straight As at school and went on to study at UCL before doing a masters degree in the history of medicine.

Ms Crane worked as a freelance writer and paralegal and had many hobbies including film, lego, whiskey, knitting and family history, her brother told the jury.

She lived in King’s Cross with her beloved cat Loki, who she “treasured”, and also loved swans, often knitting them for her young nieces.

The “other love of her life” was Liverpool Football Club, Mr Crane added – Louise had a poster of Michael Owen on her bedroom wall as a child and loved to talk about matches on the family Whats­App group.

The court heard how she had struggled with mental health in the seven years before she died, but had always hoped and tried to recover.

“It is the bitterest sadness that she won’t get to do that again,” said her brother.

“We think about her every day and hope that she is now in a better, happier place, her suffering over.”

The court heard that Ms Crane was first admitted to an inpatient psychiatric ward in 2021, with several further admissions.

While she was a patient St Pancras Hospital in March 2024, doctors were “keen to discharge Louise”, a family statement said, despite her friends and family making “desperate” efforts to prevent it.

Their letters to the hospital were read in court, some of which suggested that attempts to discharge Ms Crane seemed to “coincide exactly” with the relocation of mental health wards at St Pancras to a new in-patient facility next to the Whittington.

Her discharge was then delayed until May, but Ms Crane was readmitted to the Highgate Mental Health Centre in June after another suicide attempt.

She was transferred from the intensive “Ruby” ward to the lower-security “Topaz” ward two weeks before her death in September.

Introducing the inquest, assistant coroner for Inner North London Ian Potter told the jury there was no dispute about the medical cause of Ms Crane’s death, but the evidence heard would focus on the level of care, treatment and observation she received while on the Topaz ward, as well as staffing levels, particularly on the day she died.

The inquest into Ms Crane’s death continues.