Great-grandmother trapped in public toilet for the night

When she arrived in her home town after a long journey back from holiday Gwyneth Coles needed to answer a call of nature.

But what should have been a brief visit to a public lavatory proved to be anything but.

The 77-year-old great-grandmother was trapped there overnight after being accidentally shut in when a caretaker locked the lavatory for the night.

Mrs Coles spent 12 hours stuck inside before being released when the caretaker came back the next morning.

In the meantime, worried friends and family contacted police and a search was begun.

Unable to alert anyone to her plight, Mrs Coles opened her suitcase and put four jumpers on, under a jacket and macintosh, and settled down for the night.

She even managed to get to sleep on the lavatory.

She also had some biscuits and a bottle of orange with her to sustain her.

Yesterday, Mrs Coles said: "This will go down in family history --the night great-grandma got locked in the loo.

"I think it's hilarious now, although it was pretty traumatic at the time. My family were worried sick."

Scroll down for more....

Mrs Coles arrived in her home town of Pickering in North Yorkshire around 6.30pm on Monday after a journey by train and bus from Inverness in northern Scotland.

"When I got to Pickering, I decided to spend a penny at the loos," she said.

"While I was inside, the caretaker came alongand I heard him shout, 'anyone in?'

I said, 'Yes, I'm in here, I won't be a minute', but he can't have heard me and I could hear the door being locked.

"He should have checked the cubicles really.

"I went to bang on the door and was shouting out, but he didn't hear. If I'd had my mobile phone with me I'd have been all right, but I didn't."

Mrs Coles, a widow, who has two children, four grandchildren-and two great-grandchildren-said she also tried to alert passers-by, but to no avail.

Yesterday, Ryedale District Council apologised to Mrs Coles and admitted that its procedures had not been followed.

John Davison, the council's director of operations, said the lavatory attendant called out to ask if anyone was inside before bolting the doors but did not hear Mrs Coles's reply.

"We do have a procedure where the toilet should be physically checked to make sure there's nobody in the cubicles and obviously we didn't carry that out," he said.

"I can't stress enough that we're extremely sorry that Gwyneth Coles was locked in the toilet.

"She's a remarkable lady."