Police blamed after woman drove her car into icy lake a year after being 'raped by a work colleague'

An inquest hearing held on Tuesday to determine the cause of the death of a 28-year-old woman in 2016 heard that she drowned herself by driving her car into an icy lake in South Wales.

This comes after the woman's family lodged an official complaint with a police watchdog questioning the handling of the case.

During the hearing in Swansea, the woman's family blamed the Metropolitan Police for failing to act sooner. The jury has to now decide whether the police could have done more after it was reported that Warren had been acting "irrationally."

The woman, identified as Hannah Warren, took the step a year after she was allegedly raped by a work colleague in 2015. Her body was discovered a day after she disappeared from her house in Streatham, South London.

Warren was described as being in a "distorted" state of mind before the incident. The inquest heard that she had managed to free herself from the car and attempted to climb out of the lake but slipped back into it.

Her mother, Jane Barnes, said that Warren used to work for a design company in London, where she was allegedly raped by a work colleague in February 2015.

"Hannah was raped by a colleague at work but I didn't know about it until after she had died. She had told her younger brother James and it was James who told me," Barnes said.

"She had been having counselling but I didn't know until I saw some notes on her iPad which were synced with her mobile phone which talked about the rape. I found one box of antidepressants dated 2014 and only one tablet had been taken out," she added. She said that her daughter's behaviour had changed after the incident.

According to Warren's brother, she was receiving counselling and had texted her new boss on the day of her disappearance. She had messaged him about her plans to resign from her job at an office refurbishment company.

A report in LBC claimed that "low" levels of cocaine and cannabis were found in her system and that her body was covered in bruises.

The hearing in the case continues. The Metropolitan Police has not issued any statement to address the matter.