A 56-year-old woman was trapped alone in Barnet Hospital's chapel of rest with her father's dead body, it emerged this week.

Mary Lo had been paying her last respects to her 72-year-old father, Bill Curran, from Jackson Road, East Barnet, at around 3.40pm on January 25. The retired engineer had just died after a long battle with kidney problems.

Mrs Lo, who is originally from High Barnet but now lives in Bournemouth, said: "After I had been there a few minutes and said a few prayers, I wanted to leave by what I thought was the door and I couldn't open it."

She said she tried several doors and pressed an alarm button but no-one responded for half-an-hour.

She then started shouting and banging on the windows and doors until her hands were bruised.

A chapel mortuary technician, who Mrs Lo said had an 'attitude problem' and was eager to get home, eventually let her out.

"When I got there, he opened the door and let me in and said 'It's through there' and 'When you go, make sure you lock the door'." He has since been suspended.

In a statement, Barnet Hospital apologised, but said: "The catch on the door was working, but is unusual in that it has to be turned in an anti-clockwise rather than clockwise direction."

Mrs Lo said that even when someone came with keys, they could not open the door. She added: "It was quite appalling. I'm not a silly-headed type of person but I'm still upset a week later."

Liz Heyer, chief executive of Barnet and Chase Farm Hospitals Trust has offered her personal apologies to Mrs Lo and launched a full investigation into the incident.