‘My brother’s body was found in the River Thames with weights tied to his hands -I don’t believe he killed himself’
| Published date | 26 February 2023 |
| Publication title | MyLondon (England) |
In mid-October, the Lewis family was told Damien’s body had been discovered floating in the middle of the Thames next to Westminster Pier. Considered vulnerable by his relatives, at the time of his disappearance he was meant to living in supported accommodation because of his severe learning difficulties, autism and obsessive-compulsive disorder.
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Officers who broke the news at the family’s home in Dagenham were limited in the information they supplied. The Lewis’s were baffled by it all, the stretch of water he was found was around 13 miles from Damien's last known address in Ilford, which is also 5 miles from the river.
“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,” Paula said.
Details about the state Damien was found and what was known of his final movements have done little to set their minds to rest. The bizarre and mysterious nuggets of information prompt more questions than answers.
Weights tied to his arms
The first unsettling fact the family learned was how Damien was found.
“A blow-up boat that was out on the river and spotted something in the water they said looked kind of suspicious,” Paula explained. “They went over to take a look and realised it was someone face down. As they were pulling them out the water they [saw] there was a rope tied around each wrist and a dumbbell attached to the rope weighing two kilogrammes each.”
This was strange to the Lewis’s, Damien never had an interest in exercise or been known to own dumbells. He enjoyed eating sweets and playing Pokemon. The amount of weight was also peculiar, she says. Paula points out that her brother was around six feet tall, with a broad top-heavy build, 4KG would have had very little impact on his ability to swim and she believes certainly wasn’t enough to sink him.
“He didn't have shoes and socks or a jacket on,” she added. “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.”
Paula talks about her brother’s dead body with a powerful calmness, she is determined to get the answers her father wasn’t able to. Her quest for the truth is made stronger by her dad Gary saying he wanted to know what happened to Damien before he died.
That would be hard enough to deal with in normal circumstances, but Paula is frantically tracking down people who might have information about her brother’s disappearance while caring for a three-month-old baby. Just two days before Damien was found, she gave birth.
The coroner is yet to rule on Damien’s death but, with the police investigation closed, the family is desperate for an open verdict: A ruling which means there is insufficient evidence to determine how the death came about and the case is left open in case further information emerges.
‘George of the jungle’
Growing up, Damien was affected by things differently from other children. Loud noises were very upsetting and he had a tendency to go wandering off. His nickname was ‘George of the jungle’ because of his love of climbing and reclusiveness.
Bullied severely at school, his family...
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