Billions of pounds owed in child maintenance may never be recovered, government accounts show.

The money is owed by absent parents who have been referred to the Child Support Agency.
Accounts prepared for Parliament by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) class £2.9bn of the £3.9bn in maintenance arrears as "uncollectable".
Ministers said the focus was on debts for children still being brought up, but old debts would not be "forgotten".
The Child Support Agency (CSA) was set up 21 years ago with the aim of ensuring that if a relationship broke down, a parent could not just walk off and leave an ex to pay the costs of bringing up their children.
The CSA's role was to calculate maintenance - and ensure that non-resident parents paid up.
But it has been dogged with problems. Computer systems did not work properly. Mistakes were made with assessments and absent parents were not tracked down.
In 2012, a new child maintenance system was introduced in an effort to draw a line under the CSA's difficulties.
The Child Maintenance Service, as the new system is called, does not consider recovering the historic debts on the CSA's books as a priority.
Around 1.3 million single parents are owed money the CSA ruled they were entitled to - and some have been waiting years.
One single parent, Marianne Miles from London, said she badly needed the money the CSA ordered her ex-partner to pay towards their son.
But after nearly seven years of waiting for payment, she has all but given up.
"I am not hopeful of seeing any of that money to be perfectly honest," she said.
"They [the CSA] haven't made much effort to get anything - even £30 a week - so I have practically written off all of it."
In 2008, Marianne Miles, from London, was made redundant from her job as a publicist. Raising her teenage son alone became a severe financial struggle.
She turned to the CSA, which ordered her ex-partner to contribute. To this day, she still has not received the money owed, which has built up to a total of £12,000.
"I try not to get angry about it, but it's not fair," she said. "If he owed the government council tax money, or for a parking ticket, they would pursue it and make sure it was paid. But when it's paying maintenance towards your own child, it is not deemed as important."
Her son is now 20 and has left home, but Marianne is still responsible for him financially.
"Just because he didn't have it before doesn't mean he doesn't need it now," she said. "It would make a huge difference.
"He's a student so it could go towards his books and his food, that I have to support, and he's learning how to drive. I'm the only person around to help him."
Janet Allbeson, from the single-parent charity Gingerbread, believes the government should be recovering unpaid maintenance, even in cases that have been going on for years.
She said: "If they do manage to get the money, even if it is years late, it can really make a difference to a child's life.
"It allows, for instance, to help with the cost of going to college, perhaps paying off a student loan, or helping a child learn to drive.
"Children in some ways get more expensive as they get older and that money can make a real difference to a child's future."
The government said it was prioritising cases where a child was still being brought up.
Steve Webb, the minister with responsibility for child maintenance, said: "We are quite clear that just because money has been owed for a long time it does not mean it should be forgotten about. It should be paid.
"Of course everything cannot be a priority. We have been quite transparent… and we have made it clear that where there is a child still at school or being brought up - that is the first priority.
"But we are not writing off or ignoring old debt."
But figures in DWP accounts published in December raise questions about how much of the arrears backlog is likely to be recovered.
The £2.9bn listed as "uncollectable" relates to cases where either no payment has been received from the absent parent in the previous six months, or no arrears schedule has been put in place.
The DWP said the definition of "uncollectable" in the accounts did not give a true picture of the level of debt that is beyond its enforcement powers - and in fact only £244m was permanently "uncollectable".
This report will be broadcast on Sunday, 25 January 2015 at 11:00 GMT on BBC Radio 5 live.
You can listen to other editions of 5 live Investigates on the BBC iPlayer.
You can contact 5 live Investigates by emailing goldberg@bbc.co.uk or comment on this story to @BBC5Live on Twitter.


Apple has reported the slowest growth in iPhone sales since the product's 2007 launch and warned sales will fall for the first time later this year.

The US tech giant sold 74.8 million iPhones in its fiscal first quarter, compared with 74.5 million a year ago.
Apple said revenue for the next quarter would be between $50bn (Â£34bn; â‚¬46bn) and $53bn, below the $58bn it reported for the same period a year ago.
This would mark Apple's first fall in revenues since it launched the iPhone.
Despite first-quarter iPhone sales being below the 75 million expected by analysts, it was still a record quarter for the company.
Apple revenue in the three months to 26 December was $75.9bn and net profit was $18.4bn, both of which are the highest ever recorded by the company.
Sales of iPhones accounted for 68% of the company's revenue in the period.
Any other company announcing record profits and revenues might expect a warm welcome from investors. But now that Apple has scaled so many peaks the worry is that the only way is down - and there's evidence in these figures to back up those concerns.
Sales of the iPhone, surely the single most profitable product any company has produced, were basically flat. What's more,  the revenue outlook for the next three months indicates we can expect the first fall in sales since the iPhone's 2007 launch.
Then there's China - still growing but far more slowly. The iPhone is still an object of desire there, but at a time when Apple says it's seeing softness in the economy, the attractions of cheaper rivals from local firms like Xiaomi may grow.
Of course, the worries about "peak iPhone" have surfaced before and evaporated with the hugely successful iPhone 6. Last year's upgrade to the 6S was a minor one, and we can expect something more radical in September.
But the pressure is now mounting on Apple to deliver another blockbuster product to keep the profit engine running.
The Apple watch will not fill that role - we've still not even heard any sales figures for the product.
Perhaps the 1,000 engineers rumoured to be working on an Apple Car will come up with the exciting innovation which Apple's fans and investors await with growing impatience.
Is the mighty iPhone in decline?
Apple boss Tim Cook credited "all-time record sales of iPhone, Apple Watch and Apple TV" for the performance.
But the firm's chief financial officer, Luca Maestri, said the company was operating in "a very difficult macroeconomic environment".
He added that "iPhone units will decline in the quarter" and that the company was not projecting beyond those three months.
Mr Maestri partly blamed the strong US dollar for Apple's flat sales, estimating it had knocked $5bn off the company's revenues.
Apple's sales in Greater China - defined by the company as China, Hong Kong and Taiwan - rose 14%, but that was much slower than the 70% increase a year ago.
Mr Maestri said the softness in China was "something that we have not seen before", Reuters reported.
China accounts for almost a quarter of Apple's sales, more than all of Europe combined.
The profitability of Apple's business improved, with gross margin - or how much the company makes per product - increasing to 40.1%.
Geoff Blaber, an analyst at CCS Insight, said Apple was "generating industry defying margins" and had cash of almost $216bn.
Speaking to analysts, Mr Cook said the company had "the mother of all balance sheets" and that its financial position had never been stronger.
Apple's shares were down 2.7% in after hours trading at $97.28.
Daniel Ives, an analyst at Capital Markets who owns shares in Apple, said given the "white knuckles fears" ahead of the results, he would "characterise the overall headline performance as better than feared".


The tumbling and eventual halt of trading of Chinese shares for the second time in four days has global investors holding their breath.

Stock markets in Asia and Europe have all followed suit and fallen sharply. The question is how trading in China will resume on Friday morning.
"There's a large risk that we are going to see this continue tomorrow," Amy Zhuang of Nordea Bank told the BBC.
"Chances are that there's again some major volatility, I would be extremely surprised to see a calm opening. And probably, this nervousness will last all of next week."
Trying to stem the downward slide, Beijing is expected to step up efforts once again to stabilise investor confidence. But as many of the measures introduced in the past failed to have the desired effect, it will prove to be hard to convince investors that all's well.
Introducing what's called a "circuit-breaker" to stop trading in the case of a sharp fall appears to be yet another example that hasn't really worked in the way intended. The idea is that a plunge of 5% will lead to a 15-minute pause to allow the mood to cool down, so that trading can resume more level-headed after the break.
But what happened on Monday and then again on Thursday did not quite go according to that plan.
"Once you have that 15-minute pause, every trader in the market is just going to be sending out a ton of "sell" orders and so as soon as the market reopens, it is flooded with those orders and quickly hits that 7% percent threshold," Angus Nicholson of IG Trading told the BBC.
In fact, selling after the pause continued at such a fast pace that the automatic cut-off at 7% was overshot.
By the time the automatic trade suspension came into effect, the index was already beyond the threshold, down 7.2%.
As a result of it all, Thursday was the shortest trading day in the 25-year history of China's stock markets.
In fact, many experts now caution that too much regulatory measures will only add fuel to the fire.
"Many people in the market have reached the conclusion that maybe the best thing is to let go completely and let the market correct itself," said Nordea Bank's Ms Zhuang.
"If you look at the fundamentals, a lot of analysts say the market is still much too expensive and that this is just a way of correcting the very long and large upswing in the first half of 2014."
In that case, intervention on the stock market would not stop, but merely delay the sell-off. On the other hand, allowing the market to correct itself would "let it find its natural floor where investors are happy to buy and hold stocks," IG Trading's Mr Nicholson explains.
When Chinese stock markets tumbled in June 2014, sending shockwaves around the globe, the government introduced a flurry of measures to reassure traders.
Interest rates, for instance, were cut to make it cheaper to borrow money, while large state companies and funds were ordered to buy shares to stabilise the market.
A six-month ban restricting large shareholders from selling is set to expire at the end of this week and on Thursday, the Chinese Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) announced new rules to replace that ban.
To "avoid shocks to the market", the CSRC said that investors holding more than 5% of a stock can not sell more than 1% every three months - and that they must file their plans 15 trading days in advance.
"Already from tomorrow, the market will react," Ms Zhuang explains. "You're free to sell if you don't fall under that regulation - so what would you do? If all the bigger ones will only be allowed to sell gradually, then you'd better beat them to it."
There remains the debate over what exactly triggered the sell-off this week in the first place. On Monday, manufacturing data came in weaker, though not weak enough to sufficiently explain such a dramatic reaction on the markets.
China's gradual depreciation of the yuan currency seems a more likely reason for the sharp falls. Every day, the People's Bank of China sets a midpoint to the dollar, from which trading is allowed to deviate by 2% in each direction. On Thursday, that midpoint was lowered for the eighth consecutive day.
As the central bank is thought to have a much greater insight into how the Chinese economy is performing than a normal trader, a devaluation is seen as a pointer that the economy is doing worse than official statistics suggest.
The lower currency would then boost exports by making them cheaper, which in turn would drive growth in the country's crucial manufacturing sector.
Yet a weakening of the yuan goes far beyond the borders of China, warns Mr Nicholson. "Such a significant devaluation has major global consequences. The weakening of the yuan will have a significant effect on other currencies and central banks."
It might delay the next rates increase by the Federal Reserve in the US and it could prompt further weakening by the European Central Bank or the Bank of Japan.
Pushing down the yuan to prop up exports also puts pressure on other regional currencies in Asia. The Singapore and Australian dollars are already falling compared with their US counterpart. The Korean won, Malaysian ringgit and Indonesian rupiah are also lower after the weakening of the yuan.
The next days will show how Beijing chooses to play its cards. Weakening the yuan might help exports, but will add to concerns over the health of the Chinese economy.
Heavy-handed intervention on the stock market, though, is equally unlikely to instil confidence that the government has the upper hand in controlling the unruly forces of a free market.


The US Food and Drug Administration is now "strongly encouraging" hospitals not to use a leading brand of drug pump over hacking fears.

Hospira, which made the Symbiq Infusion System pump, had already discontinued the product for business reasons.
The devices were previously revealed to be hackable by an independent researcher.
The manufacturer told the BBC at the time that it was working with the FDA on a more secure system.
The FDA is urging healthcare facilities to switch to alternative infusion systems "as soon as possible".
Although no known instances of hacking have occurred, Hospira said in June that vulnerabilities discovered by security researcher Billy Rios were being investigated by the firm, in co-operation with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the FDA.
Mr Rios recently published a blog post in which he claimed the security flaw had gone unfixed for over a year.
The FDA's statement said that the agency was continuing to investigate the issues but advised hospitals to take action now.
"FDA strongly encourages health care facilities transition to alternative infusion systems, and discontinue use of these pumps," it said.
In a statement, Hospira said it was continuing to work with the DHS and FDA regarding the security issues with their pumps.
In 2007 there were more than 400,000 Hospira pumps in use in hospitals around the world, according to the company's website.
Hospira was acquired by pharmaceutical giant Pfizer in February 2015 in a deal worth $17bn (£11bn).


Apple shares have fallen sharply despite the technology giant reporting a big jump in third quarter profits.

The shares closed 4.3% lower at $125.14, cutting $50bn off Apple's market value, with investors unimpressed with its revenue forecasts.
The fall comes in spite of what boss Tim Cook called "an amazing quarter" in the three months to 27 June.
Apple's profit for the quarter rose by 38% from a year earlier to $10.7bn, while revenue was up 33% to $49.6bn.
The company sold 47.5 million iPhones in the period, up 35% on a year ago, with Mac computer sales rising 9% to 4.8 million.
Analysts blamed the share fall on disappointment about the company's revenue forecasts for the fourth quarter, which were slightly lower than expected, as well as the firm's profits being too heavily dependent on the iPhone.
Apple is forecasting revenue to be between $49bn and $51bn in the fourth quarter.
They also said the firm had failed to provide a clear indication of how its first bit of wearable technology - the Apple Watch - was faring since it went on sale on 24 April.
Mr Cook said watch had enjoyed a "great start", but has said he does not want to give more detailed figures to avoid giving competitors inside information.
Colin Gillis, an analyst for BGC Partners, told the BBC that investors should put the results into perspective.
"Overall the results are stunning, it's made $10bn in profit. But Apple is an outlier in many metrics, so you need to look at the performance relative to expectations," he said.
But he said that the firm's "complete dependence" on iPhone sales and growth in China was concerning.
Apple said that sales in the China market - which it defines as China, Hong Kong and Taiwan - doubled year-on-year, accounting for more than a quarter of the company's total third quarter sales..
But William Blair analyst Anile Doral said this position gave Apple an advantage.
"We believe the company is positioned to exploit the rise of the middle class in these geographies over the next several years," he said.
FBR analyst Daniel Ives said the firm was a victim of expectations that had become too high, noting that it had become the "gold standard" of tech firms, meaning investors expect more.
He said the quarter was "good but not great".
Overall, the majority of analysts said Apple shares were still good value for investors.
NBC's Mark Mahoney said he expected iPhone sales to continue to drive growth, noting that so far just 27% of users had upgraded to iPhone 6, leaving scope for much higher sales.
Cantor Fitzgerald analyst Brian White was particularly upbeat, saying "Apple's future prospects have never been brighter."


A whippet received emergency medical treatment after eating a bag of ecstasy tablets.

Seventeen-month old Blue was on a walk with his elderly owner in Bradford when he sniffed out a bag of heart-shaped pills and started eating them.
The owner took the bag and Blue home, but the dog started foaming at the mouth and was rushed to Bradford's pet hospital.
Blue made a full recovery and the incident has been reported to police.
The pet hospital is run by the animal charity PDSA.
Head nurse Miriam Wilson said Blue was in a critical condition when he arrived at hospital.
She said: "He'd collapsed and the toxins were causing organ failure. Life-saving treatment was started straight away.
"He was put on an IV drip and received activated charcoal to absorb the toxins. Without the treatment, he would not have survived the night."
West Yorkshire Police collected the remaining pills and disposed of them.


The winner of Chris Eubank Jr's super-middleweight bout with Arthur Abraham will earn a place in the inaugural World Boxing Super Series.

Eubank, 27, defends his IBO world title against the 37-year-old German at Wembley Arena on 15 July.
WBA champion George Groves and Britons Callum Smith and Jamie Cox are among eight super-middleweights already entered in the Super Series tournament.
Smith sacrificed a WBC world title shot against Anthony Dirrell to take part.
The winner of the knockout event will earn a share of $50m (£38m) and take the Muhammad Ali trophy.
But they will have to negotiate quarter-finals in September, semi-finals in January and a May final in a tournament which organisers say will "change the world of boxing."
If contestants meet a current world title holder during the tournament, belts will also be on the line.
"It would be great to fight George Groves and to take his title away from him but let´s see what the draw in Monaco brings," said Eubank.
A cruiserweight tournament will run alongside the super-middleweight competition and as all four cruiserweight world champions are taking part, the division should have an undisputed champion by May.
Abraham believes the Super Series represents "the Champions League of boxing". He holds a record of 46 wins from 51 fights and is a former two-weight world champion, while Eubank has just one defeat in 24 bouts.
Both will know their potential Super Series quarter-final opponent on Saturday when the draw takes place in Monte Carlo.


England won the men's triples title at the World Bowls Championships for the first time since 1980 after a tense final against Australia in New Zealand.

Jamie Walker, Andy Knapper and Rob Paxton sealed a 15-14 victory in a match that went to an extra end.
In the women's fours final in Christchurch, Australia beat England's Ellen Falkner, Wendy King, Rebecca Wigfield and Jamie-Lea Winch 23-8.
Scotland's Lesley Doig faces Australian Karen Murphy in Sunday's women's final.
In the men's pairs, England's Sam Tolchard and Louis Ridout were beaten 17-10 by Ian McClure and Gary Kelly of Ireland in the opening round.
The Irish pair then overcame hosts New Zealand by the same score to reach the final. They will face Australia, who saw off Scotland duo Alex Marshall and Paul Foster 18-11 in the last four.


A teenager murdered at Kingsmills was crying out for his mother at the moment a gunman "finished him off" by shooting him in the face, the inquest into the victims' deaths has heard.

Robert Chambers was one of 10 Protestant workers taken from their minibus and shot dead by IRA gunmen in January 1976.
After checking their religion, the gunmen ordered one Catholic to leave.
The events were recalled by the only survivor, Alan Black, on Wednesday.
He fought back tears as he listened to a clerk reading out two statements he had given to the police shortly after the attack and two more recent statements he gave as part of the campaign to have the inquest into the ten deaths reopened.
He described Robert Chambers, an 18-year-old apprentice, as "a lovely lad".
Mr Black had been a fitter in Glenanne Factory and early on the day of the murders he had been working in a field along with the teenager.
He recalled how Robert Chambers had been pleading with him to teach him to drive.
"I eventually agreed to teach him - just at the weekends," he said.
"He gave me a big hug and danced around the field and that's my last memory of him.
"Just a few hours later he was lying across my legs, fatally injured, crying out for his mother."
Mr Black was distressed as the clerk reached a section in the statement in which he described how a gunman had walked up to Robert Chambers and shot him again, this time in the face.
Mr Black, who was hit up to 18 times, lay under him and pretended to be dead.
The inquest is continuing.


"They've made their point, let's hope it settles down," Bill McLaren characteristically understated in an indirect plea to the players on the pitch of the Arms Park.

It was 1987. Wales versus England in the Five Nations. It had been a stormy night, the rain poured for 12 hours before the game but there were other reasons why the English side particularly were in thunderous mood.
"We knew it had been an extremely tough start to the campaign for the English side," recalls David Pickering, who was Wales captain on that day which became known as the "Battle of Cardiff".
They had lost 17-0 in Ireland, then they lost again against France. So we were very aware, England having not won in Wales for 24 years, that it was going to be a very tough encounter.
Graham Dawe played hooker for England that day. It was his first trip to the Arms Park.
"The talk was all about how the Welsh boys bullied us up front," he said. "You get it all the time in rugby or at least you did in those days - you get a lot of off the ball shirt pulling and stepping across the lineout and we just said, right we are not going to accept it, we are going to stand up to them."
Before the second line-out, Steve Bainbridge and Steve Sutton tussled, exchanging angry words. It was only the second minute of the game. The tone had been set.
"I tell you this has got to be sorted out, what a start to an international. Phil Davies on the ground, punches thrown, two men completely on the deck," McLaren said in commentary.
Blood streamed down the face of the Wales' number eight, Davies. The man who punched him, Wade Dooley, would later say he was acting in retaliation against an attack on one of his teammates.
"He was just in the wrong place at the wrong time," said Dawe. "Somebody obviously upset Wade - Wade Dooley would sometimes hit his own teammates in training. I think Wade Dooley just thought, 'just crack on'."
The irony was plain to see. The two men involved, Dooley and Davies, shared the same day job - they were policemen.
"Undoubtedly England were the major aggressors on the day but it would be wrong to assume that we were entirely innocent," Pickering admitted.
Davies was not the only casualty that day. Steve Sutton would end up having his nose broken by one of his own teammates.
The statistics lay bare a match dominated by ill-discipline. The total number of penalties conceded by England was 20 while Wales conceded 12. The referee had a busy day.
"I tell you in the line-out there are so many infringements at the one time, the referee must be going cross eyed down there," was McLaren's observation.
"Nobody covered themselves in great glory that day," Pickering said.
"It was a very difficult match for Ray Megson in his first international. Ultimately, at the end of the game, we felt pretty sorry for the referee as well who had a really tough encounter to cope with."
Wales won the match 19-12 and their unbeaten record in Cardiff against England grew to 25 years.
The RFU came down hard on its players that day. Four were suspended - Dawe, Gareth Chilcot, Richard Hill and Dooley.
In more recent years, Dooley became a citing officer for the union, overseeing discipline but the fall-out would have big consequences for Dawe's international career.
"I was disappointed because although I was a relatively young man, I wanted to play for England and it got taken away from me for what I don't think was any particular reason because I never threw a punch in the game," he said.
"I am not saying I am an innocent person but I fell out of favour really because of that. It took me eight years to get my next cap so it was quite an expensive incident for which I still feel a little bit aggrieved about."


Two Welsh health boards are unlikely to break even this year, the health minister has warned.

Mark Drakeford said he thought the Betsi Cadwaladr and Hywel Dda health boards were the ones "most likely to struggle to live within their means".
But he said he was unwilling to repeat the NHS bail-outs of previous years.
Three health boards overspent by a total of £50m in 2014-15 despite an extra £240m given to the Welsh NHS to cover the cost of winter pressures.
On Thursday, Mr Drakeford told AMs on the health committee he would not give LHBs "extra money at the end of the year to make it look as if they have lived within their means".
The health boards which overspent in 2014-15 were:
Mr Drakeford said he was very hopeful that the Aneurin Bevan, Cwm Taf and Powys health boards, as well as the Velindre NHS Trust, had the ability to improve their financial situations.
But he said he was "a little less confident" about the Cardiff and Vale health board, and Abertawe Bro Morgannwg.
In December 2013, Welsh health boards were given approval to balance their books over a three-year period rather than annually.
A spokesman for the Betsi Cadwaladr board said it expected a deficit of £19.7m for 2015-16, or 1.5% of its budget.
"While clearly disappointing, this represents the significant operational challenges affecting the Health Board, including those unique circumstances which have resulted in the Health Board being placed in special measures," he said.
"The appointment of a permanent Chief Executive, along with developing a medium term strategy for safe and sustainable clinical services, will be critical to enable the Health Board to balance over future years."
Hywel Dda chief executive Steve Moore said it was "working closely" with Welsh ministers on its finances and grateful for their support "in meeting some of the issues that we face, particularly our significant workforce challenges".
"We acknowledge the need to live within our means and have saving plans in place to demonstrate improvement and progress towards our three year Integrated Medium Term Plan," he said.
Conservative Shadow Health Minister Darren Millar added: "Despite assurances that there will be no bailouts this time, it remains concerning that at least two health boards are going to struggle to break even this year.
"This dire state of affairs is symptomatic of Labour's failure to protect the health budget in recent years, and highlights the lack of progress being made at Betsi Cadwaladr health board."
In England, the NHS overspent by £930m in three months in 2015, and is on course for an annual deficit of at least £2bn, in what regulators described as its worst financial crisis in a generation.


Sally Brampton, the founding editor of Elle magazine in the UK and newspaper columnist, has died at the age of 60.

Brampton, who had spoken of her struggle with depression, began her career at Vogue before launching Elle.
The circumstances of her death are unclear but it is thought she walked into the sea at St Leonards in East Sussex on Tuesday afternoon.
Police said a woman was pulled ashore at Galley Hill, Bexhill. They said there were no suspicious circumstances.
Brampton studied fashion at Central Saint Martin's College of Art & Design before starting at Vogue. She became fashion editor at The Observer and was then headhunted to launch women's lifestyle magazine Elle in the UK at the age of 30 in the 1980s.
She later had a weekly agony aunt column in the Sunday Times Style magazine from 2006 until 2014.
In 2008 she gave a personal account of her efforts to overcome depression in her book "Shoot the Damn Dog".
Elle magazine's current editor-in-chief Lorraine Candy described Brampton as a "kickass boss" who "nurtured new talent with the same enthusiasm as she nurtured her family and friends".
Writing on the magazine's website, she said: "The magazine she created in 1985 was unlike anything else on the newsstands at the time.
"It was a breath of fresh air, mixing high street with high end, having a brave and sometimes contrary opinion, questioning the norm and championing new thinkers.
"She made it colourful and joyous, which was exactly how she imagined the Elle reader and how she appeared herself to everyone who worked with her."
Gill Sinclair, from the website Victoria Health, paid tribute to her "beautiful friend Sally" who "walked into the sea yesterday afternoon and didn't come back" in an email sent to subscribers.
She wrote: "Sally's battle with depression is well documented; she shared her darkness in order to give light and she fought fiercely to try and obliterate the stigma of mental health and together we must uphold her mission."
Sally was an uncompromising agony aunt - her tough love sometimes uncomfortable to read, but at the same time absolutely thrilling. What made it so powerful was the position of authority and wisdom it came from. Sally was quick to share her own experiences, draw on her own hard fought battles and use the aching traumas of her own life story to help heal others.
Her big lesson to readers was that you cannot change other people - you can only change your reaction to them. That puts all the power back in your hands. So whether it is an abusive mother, a lover suffering from addiction or a difficult teen, she gave us the ability to overcome our pain.
She always was, and will remain, an absolute inspiration. And for me personally, a treasured mentor. Thank you Sally.
Tiffanie Darke, editor of the Sunday Times Style magazine from 2002-2014
Guardian columnist Suzanne Moore tweeted: "An editor every writer wanted to please because she wanted the best and wrote the best herself. Very sad."
Author Jojo Moyes tweeted: "Immensely sad about Sally Brampton, kind, talented & great editor."
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The polls have opened for voting in the Welsh assembly election.

Sixty Senedd seats are being contested, with the results expected in the early hours of Friday morning.
Wales is also electing four police and crime commissioners (PCCs), while a parliamentary by-election is taking place in the Ogmore constituency.
Polling stations will remain open until 22:00 BST on Thursday. Counting for the PCC elections in Wales will take place on Sunday.
For the assembly election, voters will be given two ballot papers.
Forty assembly members will be elected for constituencies as in general elections, and the other twenty via another vote to represent five larger regions.
Regional AMs are elected from lists of candidates to represent North Wales, Mid and West Wales, South Wales West, South Wales East, and South Wales Central.
There will be full coverage of the results and their implications across BBC Wales television, radio and online.
The BBC Wales Election 2016 website and mobile apps will be live throughout Thursday night and Friday.


The carcass of a whale, believed to be about 20ft (6m) long, has washed up on the shore at Killough, County Down.

A spokesman for Belfast Coastguard said a member of the public reported the sighting near St John's Point lighthouse on Friday morning.
He said staff from the Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA) had examined the carcass and believed it was a minke whale that had been dead for two weeks.
The NIEA and local council will remove the carcass at the start of next week.
The coastguard spokesman added that the crew of a yacht also reported the whale carcass floating off the shore on Thursday.


The UN special envoy to Syria, Staffan de Mistura, expects "substantive, deeper" talks between the government and opposition to begin on Monday.

Mr de Mistura said the agenda would include the formation of a transitional administration and elections.
But it is not clear who will attend the indirect talks in Geneva, with some opposition leaders yet to confirm.
On the ground in Syria, a partial truce that began 12 days ago has considerably reduced the intensity of the fighting.
Mr de Mistura said the cessation of hostilities was holding "by and large" and was open-ended as far as the UN was concerned.
The first round of talks on a political solution to the conflict in Syria was suspended last month while still in the "preparatory" phase, with both sides blaming each other.
It came as government forces, backed by Russian air strikes, launched a major offensive on opposition-controlled areas around the northern city of Aleppo.
The government succeeded in cutting a key rebel supply route from Turkey to Aleppo before the US and Russia brokered the cessation of hostilities agreement, which does not include the jihadist groups Islamic State (IS) and al-Nusra Front.
At a news conference in Geneva on Wednesday, Mr de Mistura welcomed what he described as "a sustained reduction of violence".
"Incidents are taking place, no question and they are. I'm expecting even worse incidents to take place, probably caused by spoilers," he added.
"The secret will be whether the sides are in a position, as so far touch wood has been the case, [to] contain them, make them not become an unravelling of what has been after five years quite a change... for the life of every Syrian."
Mr de Mistura said he expected informal discussions to begin at hotels across Geneva immediately, but that formal talks would not resume until Monday.
He added that they would once again be indirect "proximity" talks, with representatives of the warring parties located in separate rooms, and would last only 10 days before pausing for a week.
"We believe that having a timetable and a time limit is healthy for everyone so that we don't think that we can go onâ€¦ for two weeks hoping to get into substance - we go seriously into substance as soon as we can."
The BBC's Imogen Foulkes in Geneva says the focus of the talks will be a transitional government, a new constitution, and elections. Humanitarian access and ceasefire violations will not be on the agenda.
The UN has set up two taskforces to deal with those issues, and clearly wants the opposition and government representatives to concentrate on a political settlement, our correspondent adds.
UN aid agencies say good progress has been made getting supplies to besieged areas, with almost 240,000 people reached, most of whom received nothing in the last year.
But our correspondent says it remains unclear exactly who will arrive in Geneva on Monday, with some opposition leaders suggesting they have not yet decided whether to attend.
Meanwhile, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Raad Al Hussein told the BBC that the international system had failed Syria.
"We've seen in this conflict... almost every conceivable war crime allegedly being committed, in addition to crimes against humanity," he said.
"What does it say to us? It says... that the international system is incapable of addressing this sort of conflict. So future 'Syrias' - we have no algorithm, no formula, for how we address these conflicts. And it doesn't bode well for the 21st Century, of course," he added.


Charter flights from Switzerland's largest city to Inverness are set to make a return.

Swiss-based Falcon Travel is to operate weekly charter flights from Zurich from May.
A 100-seater Fokker 100 aircraft will operate into Inverness until August. The service will also return in 2016 and 2017.
It marks a return to Inverness by Falcon, which previously operated flights between the two cities.
Highlands and Islands Airports Ltd (Hial) said the new service could lead to a tourism boost worth almost Â£1m for the local economy.
Inverness Airport general manager Graeme Bell said: "We are delighted that Falcon Travel have committed to operate this service for three years.
"Inverness and the Highlands have a great deal to offer Swiss visitors and we will be working closely with Inverness and Loch Ness Tourism BID and other tourism agencies to ensure we make the most of this opportunity."


Junior Stanislas scored a 98th-minute equaliser as Bournemouth twice came from behind to earn a point in an astonishing game at Vitality Stadium.

Everton looked set for victory when goals from Ramiro Funes Mori and Romelu Lukaku put them 2-0 up at half-time.
Adam Smith rifled in a sizzling strike from 25 yards and Stanislas converted Joshua King's cut-back to make it 2-2.
Ross Barkley swept a shot in on the turn in the 95th minute but Bournemouth responded through Stanislas's header.
Only five minutes of added time had been signalled, but in truth few could begrudge Bournemouth their last-gasp equaliser after a hugely spirited second-half display.
They remain in the relegation zone but move up one place to 18th, while Everton remain seventh after twice squandering winning positions.
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Everton boss Roberto Martinez will be disappointed but there was plenty to admire once again from his enterprising young team, particularly in an impressive first-half display.
The Toffees had already racked up five corners by the 25th minute when they eventually scored their first set-piece goal of the season, Funes Mori rising highest to plant a firm header into the top corner.
Gerard Deulofeu was a constant menace down the right flank and it was his superb teasing cross that set up the second goal as he provided an assist for Lukaku for the fifth time this season.
The Belgian took one touch across Steve Cook and blasted the ball past Adam Federici to register his fifth goal in four matches.
Facing a fifth defeat in six matches, Bournemouth boss Eddie Howe wasn't afraid to take action at half-time - replacing Cook with Smith, and shifting Simon Francis from right-back to central defence.
The substitute was at the heart of the hosts' best attacking moves and it was he who reduced the arrears with a stunning goal.
When a corner was cleared to him 25 yards out, he took two touches and unleashed a stunning strike which dipped in and kissed the inside of the post on its way into the top left corner.
With three minutes of normal time remaining, Bournemouth drew level. A free quick was taken quickly to King, who beat Brendon Galloway down the right and centred for Stanislas to fire in.
By now, Bournemouth were exerting all the pressure, but it seemed that they would be denied a point by familiar defensive failings in the most heartbreaking fashion.
Seamus Coleman drove into the area and the ball fell kindly for Barkley, who netted his third goal in two games with a shot on the turn.
Everton looked assured of victory, but Bournemouth were not to be denied their first come-from-behind point of the season.
Charlie Daniels clipped in a cross from the left and Stanislas buried a nerveless header past Tim Howard.
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Bournemouth manager Eddie Howe: "It's unbelievable how football can play with your emotions. To score in the manner we did at the end was one of the biggest highs I've had in football. An incredible day, though this game is no good for your health. I'll be having an early night tonight.
"The character we showed today was excellent. We've shown our resolve and our willingness to improve, which we will need if we are going to get through this tough season. We are improving week on week. We have to now build on today's result."
Everton manager Roberto Martinez: "Our first-half performance was very good. We were in control, dominant and scored two goals. But in the second half we lost control, though you must expect the home side to come at you.
"We lacked that instinct to put the game to bed. With a two-goal lead you feel very comfortable. After the equaliser we showed good character to score a third. But it was a massive, massive blow to concede so late in the game, and it's a feeling of dropping two points.
"I don't know why the referee allowed play to continue for so long, but maybe it was luck for Bournemouth which they haven't had all season."
Bournemouth visit Chelsea next Saturday, while Everton host Crystal Palace on Monday, 7 December.
Match ends, Bournemouth 3, Everton 3.
Second Half ends, Bournemouth 3, Everton 3.
Charlie Daniels (Bournemouth) is shown the yellow card for excessive celebration.
Goal!  Bournemouth 3, Everton 3. Junior Stanislas (Bournemouth) header from the centre of the box to the high centre of the goal. Assisted by Charlie Daniels with a cross.
Substitution, Everton. Darron Gibson replaces Arouna Koné.
Goal!  Bournemouth 2, Everton 3. Ross Barkley (Everton) right footed shot from the right side of the box to the centre of the goal. Assisted by Seamus Coleman.
Corner,  Bournemouth. Conceded by Ramiro Funes Mori.
Attempt missed. Charlie Daniels (Bournemouth) header from the centre of the box is just a bit too high. Assisted by Glenn Murray following a corner.
Attempt missed. Glenn Murray (Bournemouth) header from the centre of the box misses to the right. Assisted by Matt Ritchie with a cross following a corner.
Corner,  Bournemouth. Conceded by Ramiro Funes Mori.
Joshua King (Bournemouth) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Brendan Galloway (Everton).
Attempt blocked. Romelu Lukaku (Everton) left footed shot from outside the box is blocked. Assisted by Gareth Barry.
Goal!  Bournemouth 2, Everton 2. Junior Stanislas (Bournemouth) right footed shot from the centre of the box to the top right corner. Assisted by Joshua King.
Glenn Murray (Bournemouth) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
Foul by Gareth Barry (Everton).
Substitution, Everton. Aaron Lennon replaces Gerard Deulofeu.
Attempt missed. Charlie Daniels (Bournemouth) left footed shot from the left side of the box is close, but misses to the left.
Dan Gosling (Bournemouth) is shown the yellow card.
Foul by Joshua King (Bournemouth).
Arouna Koné (Everton) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Goal!  Bournemouth 1, Everton 2. Adam Smith (Bournemouth) right footed shot from outside the box to the top left corner following a corner.
Corner,  Bournemouth. Conceded by Ramiro Funes Mori.
Delay over. They are ready to continue.
Substitution, Bournemouth. Glenn Murray replaces Harry Arter because of an injury.
Delay in match Harry Arter (Bournemouth) because of an injury.
Corner,  Bournemouth. Conceded by Ramiro Funes Mori.
Attempt blocked. Junior Stanislas (Bournemouth) right footed shot from outside the box is blocked. Assisted by Harry Arter.
Attempt saved. Matt Ritchie (Bournemouth) left footed shot from the centre of the box is saved in the centre of the goal. Assisted by Charlie Daniels with a cross.
Substitution, Everton. Tom Cleverley replaces James McCarthy because of an injury.
Attempt blocked. Arouna Koné (Everton) right footed shot from outside the box is blocked. Assisted by Gerard Deulofeu.
Attempt blocked. Andrew Surman (Bournemouth) left footed shot from the left side of the box is blocked. Assisted by Charlie Daniels.
Corner,  Bournemouth. Conceded by John Stones.
Delay over. They are ready to continue.
Delay in match James McCarthy (Everton) because of an injury.
Corner,  Bournemouth. Conceded by Brendan Galloway.
Corner,  Bournemouth. Conceded by Gareth Barry.
Attempt blocked. Junior Stanislas (Bournemouth) right footed shot from the left side of the box is blocked. Assisted by Harry Arter.
Foul by Adam Smith (Bournemouth).
Ross Barkley (Everton) wins a free kick in the defensive half.


Mae Llywodraeth y DU wedi cyhoeddi y bydd Ysgrifennydd Cymru, Alun Cairns, yn trafod busnes ar ymweliad â Japan.

Yn ogystal â thrafod Brexit, bydd Mr Cairns yn cynnal trafodaethau gyda chwmni Hitachi, sy'n berchen y cwmni sy'n cynllunio i godi atomfa Wylfa Newydd ar Ynys Môn.
Mae dros 6,000 o bobl yng Nghymru yn gweithio i gyflogwyr o Japan.
Mewn datganiad, dywedodd Swyddfa Cymru y bydd Mr Cairns yn "cwrdd â swyddogion o Panasonic, Sony a Toyota i'w sicrhau y bydd Cymru yn parhau i fod yn wlad uchelgeisiol sy'n edrych tuag allan ar ôl i'r DU adael yr Undeb Ewropeaidd".
Mae gan y tri chwmni ffatrïoedd yng Nghymru - Panasonic yng Nghaerdydd, Sony ym Mhencoed ger Pen-y-bont ar Ogwr a Toyota ar Lannau Dyfrdwy.
Dywedodd Mr Cairns: "Roeddwn i am ei gwneud yn flaenoriaeth i ymweld â phartner masnachu pwysig, ac i yrru'r neges glir bod y DU yn - ac yn parhau i fod - ar agor i fusnesau.
"Yn dilyn ymadawiad y DU [o'r UE] ry'n ni am barhau i fod yn rym dylanwadol ar lwyfan y byd, gan weithio gyda phartneriaid rhyngwladol i sicrhau diogelwch a llewyrch."
Fe ddaw'r ymadawiad wedi i Japan a'r Undeb Ewropeaidd gyrraedd cytundeb ar fasnach rydd fis diwethaf.
Alun Cairns, oedd gwestai pen-blwydd Dewi Llwyd ar ei raglen fore Sul ar BBC Radio Cymru.


Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has said Greeks made a "brave choice" in voting to reject the terms of an international bailout in Sunday's referendum.

Thousands celebrated in the streets after hearing the final result was 61.3% "No", against 38.7% "Yes".
But European officials warned that it could see the country ejected from the eurozone and the euro fell across the board in Asian markets on Monday.
Greece's finance minister, who often clashed with creditors, has resigned.
Yanis Varoufakis wrote on his blog that he had been "made aware of a certain preference by some Eurogroup participants, and assorted 'partners', for my... 'absence' from its meetings".
Latest updates
The prime minister had judged this to be "potentially helpful to him in reaching an agreement", he noted, adding: "I shall wear the creditors' loathing with pride."
Greece's governing Syriza party had campaigned for a "No", saying that the bailout terms were humiliating.
Mr Tsipras said late on Sunday that the Greeks had proved that "democracy won't be blackmailed."
Speaking in a televised address, he said: "Given the unfavourable conditions last week, you have made a very brave choice.''
"But I am aware that the mandate you gave me is not a mandate for rupture.''
He said that Greece would go back to the negotiating table on Monday, adding that an International Monetary Fund (IMF) assessment published this week confirmed that restructuring Greek debt was necessary.
But some European officials had already warned that creditors could take a "No" vote to mean that Greeks had rejected further talks.
European leaders were varied in their openness to more talks with Greece after the vote.
Germany's Deputy Chancellor, Sigmar Gabriel, told local media that renewed negotiations with Greece were "difficult to imagine" and that Mr Tsipras had "torn down the bridges" between Greece and Europe.
However, Italian and Belgian ministers were more conciliatory, with Belgium's finance minister saying that the door remained open to restart talks "literally, within hours".
Jeroen Dijsselbloem, who heads the eurozone's group of finance ministers, said the referendum result was "very regrettable" for the future of Greece.
Meanwhile, Martin Schulz, the president of the European Parliament, warned that Europe was entering "a very difficult and even dramatic time" unless the Greek government made "meaningful" proposals in the coming hours.
Greece had been locked in negotiations with its creditors for months when the Greek government unexpectedly called a referendum on the terms it was being offered.
The damoclean sword hanging over Greece is that the banks will run out of cash in just a few days.
Which means that a decision on what kind of limited service the banks can provide, to be made by the Greek government, will hinge entirely on whether the European Central Bank's (ECB) governing council decides to freeze, cut or increase the provision of Emergency Liquidity Assistance, or emergency loans to Greece.
As for the ECB, it does not wish to be seen as Greece's Judge Dredd. It will take its lead from any statement by eurozone government heads on whether there is a realistic chance of a new deal to rescue the finances of the ailing Greek state.
So the fate of Greece lies firmly where it always did, in the lap of the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel and her fellow heads of government.
And here is the horrendous analysis of costs that they need to make.
Robert Peston: Huge costs of Greece staying in or quitting euro
Will 'No' vote hasten Greece's exit from the euro?
Gavin Hewitt: Greece votes 'no' and gambles future
Banks have been shut since last Monday after the European Central Bank declined to give Greece more emergency funding.
Withdrawals at cash machines have been limited to €60 per day. Greece's last bailout expired on Tuesday and Greece missed a €1.6bn (£1.1bn) payment to the IMF.
Greek government officials have insisted that rejecting the bailout terms would help them negotiate a better deal with international creditors.
Mr Varoufakis wrote that the "No" referendum vote was a "majestic, big yes to a democratic Europe". Earlier, he said that banks would reopen on Tuesday.
The coming days will see a flurry of emergency meetings across Europe.
European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said he would have a conference call with key EU officials and the ECB on Monday morning.
French President Francois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel are scheduled to meet in Paris on Monday. A summit of eurozone heads of state has been arranged for Tuesday.
The European Commission - one of the "troika" of creditors along with the IMF and the ECB - wanted Athens to raise taxes and slash welfare spending to meet its debt obligations.
Greece's Syriza-led government, which was elected in January on an anti-austerity platform, said creditors had tried to use fear to put pressure on Greeks.


Lord Heseltine's involvement in a scheme to help Teesside's unemployed steelworkers find jobs has been criticised by a union.

The former deputy prime minister will head the Tees Valley Inward Investment Initiative, which aims to attract foreign companies to the area.
The move comes after 1,700 lost their jobs when the Redcar Steelworks closed.
The GMB called Lord Heseltine's involvement "insulting" after he said now was a good time to lose a job.
Michael Blench, GMB regional officer, said the area had suffered "devastating blows" with hundreds of jobs also lost at Air Products in Port Clarence and Boulby potash mine.
He said: "For Lord Heseltine to be parachuted into the North is an insult.
"Just a couple of weeks ago it was Lord Heseltine who said insensitively that it was as good a time as any for UK steelworkers to lose their jobs.
"It is alright for the inhabitants of rich parliamentary ivory towers to say that.
"In the real world, Tory policy is creating a Northern Poor House."
Lord Heseltine was criticised in October for comments he made to the Murnaghan programme on Sky.
He said a global over-supply of steel had resulted in the Redcar steelworks closure.
He said: "Very painful for the people who suffer but on the other hand, if you are going to lose your job this is probably a good a time because the number of new jobs in the economy today is one of the most exciting features of this economy compared with many others."
Business Secretary Sajid Javid said: "Michael (Heseltine) has a wealth of experience of working closely with local communities, business acumen and passion for investment and regeneration, and it's a real coup he's agreed to take on this job."
Lord Heseltine said: "It is a great honour to be asked to help with the government response to the sad events in the steel industry in Teesside."


A bill which would allow men accused of raping underage girls to be cleared if they marry the girl has been preliminarily backed by Turkish MPs.

The bill would pardon men only if they had sex without "force or threat" and if they married the victim.
Critics say it legitimises rape and child marriage, and lets off men who are aware of their crime.
Violence against women in Turkey has increased in the past decade - 40% of women report sexual or physical abuse.
Statistics also show the murder rate of women increased by 1,400% between 2003 and 2010.
The bill was initially approved on Thursday evening after being brought to parliament by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP). On Tuesday, MPs will debate the bill a second time before casting their final vote.
It is a highly contentious bill that has divided Turkey along its traditional secular versus conservative fault line.
The aim, says the government, is not to excuse rape but to rehabilitate those who may not have realised their sexual relations were unlawful - or to prevent girls who have sex under the age of 18 from feeling ostracised by their community.
There is opposition to the bill on the streets of Istanbul. Many say it will encourage men to rape.
But the government will get support among its pious voter base in poorer areas where girls are married off young and the sexual abuse rate is higher. Supporters say Mr Erdogan has liberated religious women by repealing a ban on headscarves in public places.
The vote on Tuesday could spark mass protests.
If it passes it will likely quash the convictions of some 3,000 men accused of assaulting an under-18-year-old.
But critics say as well as overlooking statutory rape (underage sex) it would legitimise child marriage.
"Sexual abuse is a crime and there is no consent in it. This is what the AKP fails to understand," said Ozgur Ozel, MP for the opposition Republican People's Party, according to AFP news agency. "Seeking the consent of a child is something that universal law does not provide for."
But Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag said it could help couples who have engaged in consensual sex and want to marry.
"When a child is then born from this non-official union, the doctor warns the prosecutor and the man is sent to prison, putting the child and mother into financial difficulties," he said.


Ivory Coast has become the latest African country to close its land borders to prevent the spread of the deadly Ebola virus on to its territory.

Days after banning flights from three countries, it said land borders with Liberia and Guinea were being shut.
Gabon, Senegal, Cameroon and South Africa have taken similar measures. The World Health Organization says such restrictions are counterproductive.
So far 1,427 people have died - more than in any other Ebola outbreak.
The number of cases now stands at 2,615. The speed and extent of the Ebola outbreak in West Africa are "unprecedented", according to the WHO.
Elsewhere:
Read more from the WHO
Ivory Coast, the largest economy in francophone West Africa, had previously imposed a ban on flights to and from Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea.
"Faced with new outbreak sites and the reactivation of old sites... the Ivorian government decides to close its land borders with sister republics Guinea and Liberia," it said in a statement on Friday.
The WHO says travel bans do not work, and that what is needed is more doctors and officials to help trace those infected with Ebola, as well as more mobile laboratories.
On Friday, the WHO's Dr Keiji Fukuda expressed concern over so-called "shadow zones", areas which cannot be reached and where patients are not being detected.
The organisation confirmed 142 new cases of the disease had been reported since 19 August, as well as 77 deaths.
Speaking at a news conference in the Liberian capital Monrovia, Dr Fukuda said combating the disease would take "several months of hard work".
"We haven't seen an Ebola outbreak covering towns, rural areas so quickly and over such a wide area," he added.
Ebola has no known cure but some affected people have recovered after being given an experimental drug, ZMapp. However, supplies are now exhausted.
On Thursday, two US doctors were discharged from hospital after being given the drug, while three Liberian medics are also recovering well.


A witness at the Surjit Singh Chhokar murder trial has been unable to recall telling previous trials that the accused asked her to dispose of knives.

Alexandra Tierney, 47, is an ex-girlfriend of Ronnie Coulter, who is accused of murdering Mr Chhokar.
She told the High Court in Glasgow she had told the truth at previous trials, but said could not recall the evidence due to an illness-related "brain fog".
Mr Coulter denies murdering Mr Chhokar in 1998 and has blamed two other men.
He has lodged a special defence blaming his nephew Andrew Coulter and another man, David Montgomery.
Mr Coulter, 48, from Wishaw, is accused of murdering 32-year-old Mr Chhokar in Garrion Street, Overtown, North Lanarkshire, on 4 November 1998 by stabbing him.
The court has already heard that he was previously cleared of the murder following a trial in 1999.
The jury has also heard that the men he is blaming, Andrew Coulter and David Montgomery, were also cleared of the murder following a trial in 2000.
On Thursday, the court heard that Ms Tierney - known as Sandra - gave evidence at both trials.
She was asked by prosecutor Alex Prentice QC: "Do you remember giving evidence in the trial of Ronnie Coulter," and replied: "No."
The prosecutor then asked: "You have no memory of giving evidence in the trial of Andrew Coulter and David Montgomery," and Ms Tierney responded: "No."
The witness was asked why she had no memory of this and said: "I just can't remember. I've done my hardest to black it out."
She then told the jury she had 'brain fog" caused by illnesses and medication she takes.
Ms Tierney said that she suffers from Dercum's disease and was asked how that affected her memory and replied: "It can cause brain fog. There are no consultants in Britain. The only consultant you can see is in the US."
She was asked by Mr Prentice how she knew this illness affected memory and said: "I learned from a website because there's not a doctor in the UK that deals with it."
Ms Tierney was read transcripts from the previous trials and agreed that she was telling the truth during both.
She told those trials that Ronnie Coulter asked her to dispose of a black bag of wet clothes and a box containing knives the day after Mr Chhokar died.
Speaking of her memory loss, Ms Tierney said: "I forget people's names. I can't tell you what I done last week. I can hardly tell you anything about growing up."
Mr Prentice asked if she told Joseph Buchanan - the man she asked to help her dispose of the clothes and the knife box - anything about the stabbing and she replied: "I can't remember."
The QC then asked her: "Did you say to him it was Ronnie your ex-man that done the stabbing?' and Ms Tierney replied: "I can't remember."
Mr Prentice then said: "Might you have said that," and she responded: "No."
She was asked how she knew she had not and replied: "I never ever asked who done it. I was never told what happened that night."
Ms Tierney told the court that she was in a relationship with Ronnie Coulter for five years and had a son by him. They broke up when their child, who is now 22, was around a year old.
Defence QC Donald Findlay asked: "Your break up was not particularly friendly?" She replied: "No."
Mr Findlay then asked: "Ronnie Coulter never said anything to you to suggest he was in any way responsible for the death of Chhokar?" and Ms Tierney replied: "No."
The trial before judge Lord Matthews continues.


Parents are being warned of the danger of young children drowning in baths, following a small number of deaths and near misses, some linked to bath seats.

One in three accidental drowning deaths in children aged two and below involves bath seats, the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents says.
If unsupervised, young children can tip over in a bath seat and become trapped.
Babies and young children should never be left unattended in a bath, public health officials advise.
Each year in the UK, about 13 children younger than five die from drowning.
One in four of these deaths occurs in a bath.
For each drowning fatality, there are eight non-fatal drowning events serious enough to require admission to hospital.
Dr Yvonne Doyle, from Public Health England, said: "If unsupervised, young children can tip over in a bath seat and become trapped or climb out of it, with potentially fatal consequences.
"These seats are used by parents when bathing babies and young children, but they can often be mistaken as safety measures, instead of bathing aids requiring constant adult supervision.
"Babies and young children should never be left unattended in a bath, not even for a minute."
Katrina Phillips, of the Child Accident Prevention Trust, said babies could drown in just a few centimetres of water, very quickly and with no noise or struggle.
"They can't recognise danger, and don't have the strength to try to reach the surface. This means you need to stay with your baby all the time near water."
David Walker, of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, said:  "Bath seats are a really useful tool, as parents with babies and toddlers sometimes need all the help they can get, and that's the intention of these products. However, they can lead to a false sense of security.
"Distractions from the phone, other children or someone at the door are really quick events that have led to tragedies. What feels like a couple of seconds can be a minute or two, which is easily enough time for significant injuries or even death to occur."


Former Chelsea midfielder Florent Malouda has joined Turkish side Trabzonspor on a two-year contract.

Malouda, 33, left Chelsea this summer after six years with the club, but did not feature at all last season.
with his last appearance for the club coming in the Champions League final win in Munich in 2012.
The France international also won the Premier League title and three FA Cups during his stay with Chelsea.


In the bright heat of a Berlin summer morning, the flags above the Reichstag flew at half-mast.

And in the chamber beneath the great glass dome, there was a sombre atmosphere as German politicians paid tribute to the country's longest-serving post-war chancellor, who died on Friday at the age of 87.
"We owe it to Helmut Kohl" said the speaker of the house, Norbert Lammert, "that a peacefully united Germany in a free and peaceful Europe is a reality".
How ironic, then, that as Europe prepares to publicly honour the man often referred to as the chancellor of unity, it is becoming increasingly clear that Helmut Kohl also left behind a personal legacy of discord and acrimony.
Even as MPs stood for a minute's silence, German TV news programmes were running reports of the escalating conflict within Helmut Kohl's family.
Extraordinary footage has emerged of his son Walter and two of his grandchildren arriving, dressed smartly in black clothes, at the family home in Ludwigshafen.
In front of journalists and well-wishers bringing flowers and candles, they knocked several times but were apparently refused entry and eventually escorted away by a policeman, who was overheard telling Mr Kohl that there was a restraining order in place which prevented him from visiting the property.
It is common knowledge here that Walter Kohl does not get on with his father's second wife. And an undignified public row over the episode at the house has erupted as Maike Kohl-Richter's lawyer issued a statement blaming Mr Kohl for his actions.
Mrs Kohl-Richter, an economist who once worked for the late chancellor, is herself a controversial figure who, as her husband's health declined, fiercely guarded access to the former chancellor.
They married in 2008 after he suffered a severe brain injury which left him largely unable to speak. She was more than 30 years his junior and, following the marriage, Mr Kohl became estranged from the rest of his family and was rarely seen in public.
Nevertheless, his opinions still made headlines, thanks largely to one of his very few confidants, Kai Diekmann, the former editor of Germany's tabloid newspaper Bild.
It is through Mr Diekmann that we know that Helmut Kohl will not be buried alongside his first wife, who took her own life in 2001.
Hannelore Kohl, who suffered from a debilitating allergy to sunlight, is buried in the Kohl family grave in Ludwigshafen.
According to Mr Diekmann, Helmut Kohl and his second wife changed his funeral plans two years ago when he was seriously ill. He will now be laid to rest in the grounds of Speyer Cathedral.
But what has intrigued many Germans is the late chancellor's apparent decision to refuse a state memorial ceremony. Mrs Kohl-Richter has insisted his wish is honoured and so, instead, a European service will be held in Strasbourg Cathedral.
It is widely believed that Mr Kohl, who was notorious for harbouring resentment, held many current German ministers in contempt.
Do not forget, after all, that Angela Merkel, once the protegee he referred to as his "MÃ¤dchen" (girl), betrayed him by highlighting his role in a party corruption scandal.
Mr Kohl, it appears, neither forgave nor forgot.
Maike Kohl-Richter reportedly tried, and failed, to prevent the German chancellor from speaking at the Strasbourg memorial.
In addition to the praise heaped upon the late chancellor in the German parliament on Thursday, the speaker of the house also said that Helmut Kohl had "sometimes an exceptionally stubborn personality". It was, of course, a characteristic that helped him to achieve the political victories for which he is now so widely lauded.
As the funeral arrangements are made and as the biographies and eulogies are prepared, the Kohl family continues to squabble.
Kohl's political creed was said to have been shaped by his childhood in the destruction of wartime Germany. He understood how terrible the consequences of division could be.
He also knew, perhaps better than anyone, how hard it is to heal such discord.


Children need to be protected from being physically abused by their parents irrespective of "cultural sensitivities", a UK charity has said.

The NSPCC said different practices in communities were no excuse for "child abuse taking place in this country".
It comes as a judge said authorities need to make allowances for a "cultural context" in cases involving parents.
Mrs Justice Pauffley made the comments in a High Court ruling of a man from India accused of slapping his son.
She said that, in many newly arrived communities in the UK, children were "slapped and hit" for misbehaviour in a way that "excites the interest" of child protection professionals in this country.
Mrs Justice Pauffley - who sits in the family division of the High Court - said proper allowance had to be made for "what is, almost certainly a different cultural context".
She made the comments during a case involving a man from India who had been accused of assaulting his wife and son.
The boy - who cannot be named for legal reasons - alleged that his father had hit him with a belt on his back and leg.
The man denied the allegation but accepted he had given his son "a slap or a tap" to keep him disciplined.
The judge said this did not amount to "punitively harsh treatment of the kind that would merit the term physical abuse".
"Within many communities newly arrived in this country, children are slapped and hit for misbehaviour in a way which at first excites the interest of child protection professionals," Mrs Justice Pauffley said.
However, a spokesman for the NSPCC said: "Children need to be protected irrespective of cultural sensitivities.
"Different practices are no excuse for child abuse taking place in this country and the law doesn't make that distinction.
"Every child deserves the right to be safe and protected from physical abuse and the courts must reflect this."
Under the Children Act 2004 it is not illegal for a parent to hit their child as long as it amounts to "reasonable punishment".


Photographs taken by a Highlands-based marine biologist and diver appear in two new sets of stamps for the world's most remote inhabited island.

Sue Scott, from Lochcarron, Wester Ross, has been surveying wildlife on Tristan da Cunha in the South Atlantic on and off for the last 12 years.
The stamps are to be issued by the UK Overseas Territory next month.
A community was established on Tristan 200 years ago by Kelso-born Cpl William Glass.
The island formed part of British efforts to stop the French from freeing Napoleon when he was in exile on the isle of St Helena, 1,500 miles (2,414km) to the north, in 1815.
Glass and his family remained on Tristan after its garrison was eventually stood down. They were joined by sailors who set up homes on the island with women from St Helena.
Tristan's government has used the photographs by Ms Scott, a qualified diver, to highlight critically-endangered wildlife of the Tristan Archipelago, a group of volcanic islands.
The creatures to feature in the two sets of stamps include the Gough flightless moth, Tristan rock lobster and birds such as the inaccessible rail and spectacled petrel.


A teacher twice struck off for incompetence has lost her latest appeal to win back her place in the classroom.

Janet Garner, 62, claimed the General Teaching Council for Scotland acted illegally when it banned her from teaching, accusing it of bias.
The body acted after hearing how the former Alva Academy and Alloa Academy teacher once saw her entire top-set maths class fail their exams.
Judges at the Court of Session backed the decision of the GTCS.
Mrs Garner was dismissed by Clackmannanshire Council in August 2007, following complaints and parental dissatisfaction about her teaching skills, treatment of individual pupils, pupil attainment and her relationship with colleagues.
The former mathematician and statistician was struck off the teaching register in 2011, but that decision was overturned when a court found the GTCS had not properly considered the allegations.
A new panel then looked at the case, and struck Mrs Garner off again in November 2013, stating that she had "fallen significantly short of the standards expected of a registered teacher".
Mrs Garner took the case to the Court of Session, arguing that the second panel had acted illegally and was biased against her.
Civil judges ruled that the panel had acted correctly, with Lady Paton stating: "We have found nothing to suggest that the panel demonstrated actual or apparent bias."
The GTCS welcomed the ruling, but noted that it had been a "lengthy and costly" process, with the case costing in excess of Â£210,000 to fight.
The body is insured for the costs of the appeal process, after deduction of an excess, but could potentially pursue Mrs Garner for remuneration.


Rangers rounded off a turbulent week with a battling home win over Morton to secure a place in the last eight of the Scottish Cup.

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Michael Tidser smacked the Championship side in front after seven minutes as Graeme Murty's temporary Ibrox reign, following Mark Warburton's departure on Friday, suffered an early setback.
Kenny Miller pulled Rangers level six minutes later with a deflected shot.
And Martyn Waghorn prodded home after the break for a deserved win.
Rangers and Morton had met on 14 previous occasions in the Scottish Cup, with the Cappielow outfit's only win being at Hampden in the 1922 final.
However, with Morton consistently punching above their weight in the second tier under Jim Duffy and with Rangers in turmoil, the travelling fans may well have fancied their chances.
Morton took early advantage of the sense of bewilderment at Ibrox. Defender Clint Hill rose to return Ricki Lamie's long ball back towards the Ton left-back but Andy Halliday, recalled to the starting line-up in place of Arsenal loan player Jon Toral, was caught out.
His slackness was seized upon by Tidser, who advanced towards the Rangers goal and dispatched Aidan Nesbitt's lofted pass with a venomous left foot to add to Rangers' woes.
Halliday was not the only player in blue looking on edge - Hill and the Swiss defender Philippe Senderos were harried well by the well-drilled Tidser and Nesbitt and had often to resort to backwards passes, adding to the unease emanating from the stands.
Indeed, a wayward header from Senderos at the start of the second half gave Morton a glorious chance to score their second but, with only the goalkeeper to beat, Nesbitt heaved his effort high over the bar from 18 yards.
Morton last won at Ibrox in November 1980, before any of the current Greenock players were born, and despite their confident displays in the Championship they seemed to lack the belief they could pull off a Scottish Cup Ibrox win with 83 minutes still to play.
Nesbitt was left isolated up front as Barrie McKay began to probe at the banks of yellow shirts before him.
The lively Rangers winger and Miller have been two of Rangers' best players this season and both were involved in the equaliser in 13 minutes. McKay blasted a shot which Gaston parried but the Ton keeper was helpless as Miller's left-foot drive flew into the net off Thomas O'Ware's heel for his ninth goal of the campaign.
And it was the eager McKay who supplied Emerson Hyndman at the edge of the box three minutes later. The American, on loan from Bournemouth, controlled the ball and turned in one move and only Gaston at full stretch denied him a goal.
Jason Holt headed wide from James Tavernier's curling cross as Morton retreated but the Ton's discipline and hard work were rewarded by going in at the interval on level terms.
The second half took its time to move through the gears, with that over-hit effort from Nesbitt matched in its wastefulness by a Waghorn shot wide of the net.
The hosts took the lead when Hyndman collected Holt's ball into the box and cleverly knocked it in the direction of Waghorn, who bundled it home from a few yards.
Jamie Lindsay sent a curling shot a yard wide of the Rangers goal and, in injury time, Luke Donnelly made it a trio of missed chances for the visitors when he pinged a shot over the crossbar after Ross Forbes had pounced on dithering by Lee Hodson and goalkeeper Wes Foderingham.
Duffy held his head in horror in the away dugout but he and his Morton players can hold their heads high at their display. They are well placed for a place in the Premiership play-offs, while Murty holds the fort at Ibrox until a new manager is appointed.
Rangers caretaker manager Graeme Murty: "It was a bit of a whirlwind really.
"I will take some time tonight to decompress and relax and possibly have a glass of wine and get my thoughts sorted out but I have to say I stood on the sidelines and thoroughly enjoyed watching the team play.
"I am just busy sorting out my head. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Does it drive me in a way for the future? I have no idea. I will sort my thoughts out later."
Morton manager Jim Duffy: "We put an awful lot into the game.
"I thought we scored an outstanding first goal and we had two fantastic chances. If you get chances like that at Ibrox you have to take one of them.
"Overall we can't complain about the performance, but ultimately it's about winning and we congratulate Rangers.
"We've got terrific character. We've got a young side but they've got great belief in each other and they work hard for each other.
"No matter who we play, we will always give them a game."
Match ends, Rangers 2, Morton 1.
Second Half ends, Rangers 2, Morton 1.
Attempt missed. Luke Donnelly (Morton) right footed shot from outside the box is just a bit too high.
Attempt missed. Thomas O'Ware (Morton) right footed shot from outside the box misses to the right.
Foul by Philippe Senderos (Rangers).
Andy Murdoch (Morton) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Clint Hill (Rangers) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
Foul by Ross Forbes (Morton).
Foul by Jon Toral (Rangers).
Michael Tidser (Morton) wins a free kick on the left wing.
Foul by Lee Hodson (Rangers).
Ross Forbes (Morton) wins a free kick on the right wing.
Attempt saved. Ross Forbes (Morton) left footed shot from outside the box is saved in the top centre of the goal.
Attempt blocked. Barrie McKay (Rangers) right footed shot from the centre of the box is blocked.
Lee Hodson (Rangers) wins a free kick on the left wing.
Foul by Jamie McDonagh (Morton).
Substitution, Rangers. Lee Hodson replaces Lee Wallace because of an injury.
Substitution, Rangers. Jon Toral replaces Emerson Hyndman.
Attempt missed. Jamie Lindsay (Morton) right footed shot from outside the box is close, but misses to the right.
Attempt saved. Emerson Hyndman (Rangers) right footed shot from the left side of the box is saved in the top centre of the goal.
James Tavernier (Rangers) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.
Foul by James Tavernier (Rangers).
Luke Donnelly (Morton) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Substitution, Morton. Luke Donnelly replaces Ricki Lamie.
Hand ball by Martyn Waghorn (Rangers).
Emerson Hyndman (Rangers) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Jamie McDonagh (Morton).
Attempt saved. Emerson Hyndman (Rangers) right footed shot from outside the box is saved in the top centre of the goal.
Corner,  Rangers. Conceded by Ricki Lamie.
Attempt missed. Emerson Hyndman (Rangers) right footed shot from outside the box is just a bit too high.
Corner,  Rangers. Conceded by Lee Kilday.
Attempt saved. Martyn Waghorn (Rangers) left footed shot from the centre of the box is saved in the centre of the goal.
Attempt missed. Philippe Senderos (Rangers) header from the centre of the box misses to the right.
Corner,  Rangers. Conceded by Lee Kilday.
Attempt saved. James Tavernier (Rangers) right footed shot from outside the box is saved in the top centre of the goal.
Corner,  Rangers. Conceded by Jamie McDonagh.
Substitution, Rangers. Michael O'Halloran replaces Jason Holt.
Goal!  Rangers 2, Morton 1. Martyn Waghorn (Rangers) left footed shot from very close range to the centre of the goal.
Kenny Miller (Rangers) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
Foul by Aidan Nesbitt (Morton).


Rochdale midfielder Joe Thompson has been diagnosed with cancer for the second time.

"Nodular sclerosing is the most common of all types of Hodgkin lymphoma in the UK. Nearly six out of 10 of all diagnosed cases are this type and it is the most common type in young adults. It is usually found at an early stage when lymph glands in the neck become enlarged."
Cancer Research UK
The 28-year-old overcame nodular sclerosing Hodgkin lymphoma in 2014, while at Tranmere, after a six-month course of chemotherapy.
He returned to Rochdale, where he began his career in their youth system, from Carlisle at the start of the season.
"I will fight this life hurdle with the same belief, courage and desire as my previous battle," said Thompson.
"The support shown to me since I discovered my illness has returned has been immense.
"I came back from a goal down before, not only to equalise, but to take the lead. This illness may have found an equaliser, but the quest for me to get the winner starts today and I can assure you I will get the most important win of all time."
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Rochdale-born Thompson made over 100 appearances for his hometown club at the start of his career, and has also had spells at Bury and Southport.
"We will support Joe through this difficult time and will be with him every step of the way," added chairman Chris Dunphy.
"He has the full support of everyone at the club and we will do everything we can to help him beat this horrible disease for a second time."


The UK has agreed to help transport foreign troops and equipment to Mali amid French efforts to contain rebels.

France has attacked militants in Mali to support the Malian government, and has attempted to rescue a French hostage in Somalia, in recent days.
The UK is to provide two transport planes but No 10 stressed no UK troops would be deployed in a combat role.
Minister for Africa Mark Simmonds has indicated British personnel could play a role in training the Malian army.
He said the UK was only providing "very limited strategic tactical support" in the form of two C-17 transport planes, in response to a French request.
"There are no plans to extend the UK's military at the moment but there are discussions that are taking place that we're waiting for scrutiny from Parliament to, through the European Union, provide training support for the African Union and Ecowas [Economic Community Of West African States] to enable them to give the training they require to push the Islamists out of the northern part of Mali," Mr Simmonds told the BBC News Channel.
The move to transport foreign troops and equipment was agreed in a phone call between Prime Minister David Cameron and French President Francois Hollande, Downing Street said.
"The prime minister spoke to President Hollande this evening to discuss the deteriorating situation... and how the UK can support French military assistance provided to the Malian government to contain rebel and extremist groups in the north of the country," a spokeswoman said.
"The prime minister has agreed that the UK will provide logistical military assistance to help transport foreign troops and equipment quickly...
"We will not be deploying any British personnel in a combat role. They also agreed that the peacekeeping mission from West African countries needs to be strongly supported by countries in the region and deployed as quickly as possible.
"Both leaders agreed that the situation in Mali poses a real threat to international security given terrorist activity there."
The government's National Security Council (NSC) will discuss the situation when it meets on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, President Hollande has ordered security is stepped up around French public buildings and transport following the operations in Mali and Somalia.
French troops were deployed in Mali on Friday after its army lost control of a strategically-important town to Islamists who were advancing south. The rebels took control of a huge swathe of northern Mali last April.
The central town of Konna has since been recaptured, the Malian government says.
Then, French commandos went into action in Somalia, swooping on the town of Bulo Marer in an attempt to free Denis Allex, who was kidnapped in July 2009.
A battle erupted with al-Shabab militants and, according to President Hollande, the operation failed "despite the sacrifice of two of our soldiers and probably the assassination of our hostage".


Exeter Chiefs lock Damian Welch has returned to Welsh region Cardiff Blues ahead of the 2017-18 season.

The 34-year-old worked with Blues coach Danny Wilson at Cardiff RFC and had been with the capital region until joining Scarlets in 2009.
After leaving Scarlets in 2012, Welch turned out 98 times for the Chiefs but will now return to the Arms Park.
"I'm looking forward to going back to a club which pretty much started my professional career," he said.
"It's great to be heading back and Danny [Wilson] had a big bearing. He was my coach at Cardiff RFC so I'm really excited about working with him again.
"Cardiff Blues are building an exciting and ambitious squad and I'm looking forward to getting back across the bridge to play my part in that."
Welch is the second signing in as many days for the Blues, after Welsh centre Jack Roberts joined from Leicester Tigers for next season.
"We're delighted to bring Damian on board for the 2017-18 season," Wilson said.
"He is a very athletic second row and a good lineout forward who has gained valuable experienced in the Aviva premiership since leaving Wales."


Surrey's police and crime commissioner has called for one of Britain's most senior police officers to be held to account for the failure of a multi-million pound computer project.

A report into the £15m system to log crime information found oversight of the project was "not fit for purpose".
Surrey PCC Kevin Hurley said Mark Rowley - chief constable at the time - should take responsibility.
But Assistant Commissioner Rowley, who is now at the Met, defended his role.
The Surrey Integrated Reporting Enterprise Network (Siren) was commissioned by Surrey Police in 2009 but was abandoned last year.
The report, by auditors Grant Thornton, said it was was an "ambitious project that was beyond the in-house capabilities and experience" of the police force and police authority.
Mr Hurley said: "Mr Rowley is no longer employed in Surrey, but if he were I would as PCC be considering how best to hold him to account.
"He is now employed by the Metropolitan Police Service.  I will be writing to the Mayor for London Boris Johnson and the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, to take action as they see appropriate."
Siren was specifically designed to log crimes and store intelligence on criminals and suspects.
But Mr Hurley scrapped the project after the force concluded that it did not represent the "best long-term option for the force and the public".
Mr Rowley said he noted there were "no criticisms of individuals or their conduct" in the report but said he agreed with its recommendations.
"I'm sure that all those involved in leading this project as officers or from the Surrey Police Authority share with me regret and disappointment that Siren did not realise the benefits for the public we sought," he added.
The force spent £14.8m on the project from its inception to 31 March 2013. The money was spent on staff costs, training, software, technology and consultancy.
It was replaced with a less costly crime information system which is used by 13 other forces.
Mr Rowley's roles at the Met include overseeing the development of digital technology.
He is due to take up a new post later this month as head of specialist operations, which includes responsibility for  counter-terrorism policing.
Echoing his statement, the Met said: "The MPS note that the report does not single out any individual for criticism and does not appear to identify any misconduct issues.
"If misconduct allegations are made in relation to any MPS officer, they will be considered in the normal manner."


Thousands of Walsall fans travelled Wembley to watch their club compete there for the first time in its 127-year history.

The League One team played Bristol City in the Johnstone's Paint Trophy final.
It was one of the best-attended games in the UK this weekend, with more than 70,000 tickets sold - 30,000 to Walsall fans.
Bristol City won the match 2-0, becoming the first team to win the competition three times.
Before kick-off, Walsall manager Dean Smith, who began his playing career at the club, said: "You go into competitions all the time to go and win things.
"This is a cup final and there'll only be three cup winners this season in England and hopefully we've got a 50-50 chance to be one of them."
Former Aston Villa goalkeeper Nigel Spink was one of the hundreds of Walsall fans to drive down to Wembley on Sunday. He said spirits were good, although they became caught up in traffic close to Wembley Stadium.
Walsall had been one of just four of the 92 clubs in the top four divisions never to have played at Wembley. Their appearance in Sunday's final left Hartlepool United, Accrington Stanley and Crawley Town as the remaining three not to have been to the national stadium.
Forty-six coaches taking fans to London left from a retail park next to Walsall's Bescot Stadium, along with other coaches from various venues in and around the town, the club said.
Fans travelling by rail were advised to give themselves plenty of time to get there due to engineering work on the Chiltern line between Birmingham and Wembley.
Fan Mike Olley said the team's "spectacular" away form led him to place a Â£50 bet on his team to win.
"I was at Barnsley last weekend which wasn't the greatest display, but really we do play very well away from home," he said.
"We've had some spectacular victories away this season and that's what's given me the confidence to put the bet on.
"I've worked out that my [Wembley] ticket has really cost me about 40p for every year of the 127 years we've not got to Wembley."
Phil Lloyd, 48, from Walsall, wearing a jester-type Saddlers hat, said he had bought the hat for the team's Second Division play-off final at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff in 2001.
"I kept onto it.
"I have never been to Wembley."
Glenys Thomas, 50, of Walsall, travelled on a coach and said the atmosphere was "fantastic".
"Everyone was just so excited and having a laugh," she said.
"I have never been to Wembley before and we might not see this again in our lifetime."
Mayor of Walsall Pete Smith said what the manager had done for the town and club was "absolutely fantastic".
He said: "He must be a very proud man to be the first manager to take Walsall to Wembley in its 127-year history."
Dean Smith's son, Jamie, 17, who is hoping to earn a professional contract with the Saddlers, said: "(From) his first season when he went in charge and kept them up [in League One] to getting them to Wembley now is quite an astonishing achievement."


Police are trying to solve the mystery of how a refrigerated trailer, reported stolen in Austria seven years ago, came to be found more than 1,000 miles away.

The 14m (45ft) tri-axle vehicle was discovered on Walton Summit Road in Bamber Bridge, Lancashire at about 06:00 BST.
Lancashire Police said the trailer appeared to have been abandoned there for up to a month.
A search of the chassis number revealed it had gone missing in 2009.


The United Nations has announced its biggest ever appeal, seeking $6.5bn (Â£4bn; 4.7bn euros) for humanitarian aid to Syria.

The UN estimates nearly three-quarters of Syria's 22.4 million population will need humanitarian aid in 2014.
The appeal coincides with a new study by the International Rescue Committee, which warns that starvation is now threatening the Syrian population.
Bread prices have risen by 500% in some areas, according to the report.
Four out of five Syrians said their greatest worry was that food would run out, the survey found.
(Source: UNHCR)
In total, the UN is asking for almost $13bn to fund its humanitarian operations next year.
Some $2.3bn are destined for civilians inside Syria, while $4.2bn would go to Syrian refugees in neighbouring countries.
The latest call exceeds the UN's record appeal for $4.4bn in June, of which only 60% has been funded so far.
"We're facing a terrifying situation here where, by the end of 2014, substantially more of the population of Syria could be displaced or in need of humanitarian help than not," said UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres.
"This goes beyond anything we have seen in many, many years, and makes the need for a political solution all the much greater."
Ahead of the launch, UN humanitarian chief Valerie Amos described the Syrian situation as "one of the biggest crises in modern times".
By Lyse DoucetChief international correspondent
She said Syrian refugees "think the world has forgotten about them".
The UN estimates that some 6.3 million people have been internally displaced since the conflict broke out in March 2011.
More than two million Syrians have fled to neighbouring countries, including Lebanon and Turkey.
The UN is becoming impatient with some richer states for not helping its efforts, the BBC's Imogen Foulkes reports.
UN officials will be pressing Syria's neighbours Saudi Arabia and Qatar, which have apparently not offered the UN any money, our correspondent adds.
Nearly half of those who have remained in Syria now rely on aid, according to the UN.
Circumstances have worsened further with the onset of harsh winter weather.
International aid agencies say they have been struggling to provide medical aid to the sick and wounded because of fierce fighting between the forces of President Bashar al-Assad and the rebels.
IRC President David Miliband said the his organisation's latest survey showed "that starvation is now threatening large parts of the Syrian population".
By Imogen FoulkesBBC News, Geneva
Despite the huge needs, the UN is unlikely to get all the money it wants. It is almost unheard of for a UN appeal to be 100% funded: this year's request for Syria is only 60% funded, the request for the Central African Republic stands at less than 50%.
The reasons for shortfalls are complex: some traditional donors (Europe, the United States) are struggling with financial deficits. And with some crises, Syria is one of them, donors are worried their money may end up in the wrong hands.
But the UN is also impatient with some wealthy countries who have so far contributed very little to Syria. China, despite its booming economy, is thought to have offered less than $1m, while Syria's neighbours Saudi Arabia and Qatar have apparently not offered the UN any cash at all. Behind the scenes, the UN will be lobbying these countries in particular.
He called the Syrian conflict "the defining humanitarian crisis of this century so far".
"In a situation where civilians are targeted by snipers or bombs, where doctors are targeted because they've treated the 'wrong' side, and where aid workers are unable to cross conflict lines because the norms of war are not being followed and international humanitarian law is being broken, then obviously nothing is ever enough," he told the BBC.
Also on Monday Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad reaffirmed that "there will be more access and more co-operation" with the UN in the delivery of assistance.
The Syrian authorities have been accused of intentionally withholding aid from rebel-held areas.
Ms Amos said UN officials would "explore exactly what the means in terms of our ability to go to the hard-to-reach areas and the besieged areas".
In a report released last week, Amnesty International accused European Union leaders of "miserably failing" to provide a safe haven to Syrian refugees.
Only 10 member states had offered to take in refugees and even then only 12,000, it complained. The UK and Italy had offered no places at all, the organisation said.
At Monday's appeal, Mr Guterres urged European countries to "keep their borders open".
"It is essential that Syrian refugees don't perish to get to Europe. It's essential that adequate visa policies are established," he said.
More than 100,000 people are estimated to have been killed since the unrest began more than two years ago.


The man who died after a crash involving two cars in Omagh, County Tyrone, was Paul Mills.

The collision happened on the Dromore Road at about 22:00 BST on Saturday.
Mr Mills was 49 years old and was from the Omagh area.
A 40-year-old woman was taken to hospital for treatment to non-life threatening injuries.
Police said she has been arrested in connection with the collision.