NHS trust and ward manager guilty of safety failures after patient Alice Figueiredo, 22, killed herself at mental health hospital

Daily Mail​

12 hours ago

An NHS trust and ward manager have been found guilty of serious safety failings after 22-year-old Alice Figueiredo killed herself in a mental health hospital where she had made more than 10 previous attempts to self-harm using the same materials.
Jurors at the Old Bailey found that North East London NHS Foundation Trust (NELFT) failed to ensure the safety of a non-employee at Goodmayes Hospital in Redbridge, where Ms Figueiredo died on July 7 2015.
Ward manager Benjamin Aninakwa, 53, from Essex, was also found guilty of failing to take reasonable care for the health and safety of patients on the Hepworth Ward.
Both the Trust and Aninakwa had denied wrongdoing but declined to give evidence during the trial.
Aninakwa was cleared of manslaughter by gross negligence, while the trust was cleared of corporate manslaughter. However, the jury found both had committed health and safety breaches which exposed patients to risk.
Jurors deliberated for 125 hours and 22 minutes to reach their verdicts.
Ms Figueiredo, who had a history of mental health issues including a non-specific eating disorder and bipolar affective disorder, had been repeatedly exposed to known risks on the ward.
Plastic items were left in communal toilets despite her using them on at least 10 occasions to attempt suicide - incidents that were recorded in hospital notes.
Jurors heard that Aninakwa failed to remove the plastic materials or ensure previous incidents were adequately recorded and addressed.
He had also been under a performance improvement plan at the time of her death.
The jury heard Ms Figueiredo had been a 'bright and gifted' woman, the head girl at her school who had set up a mentoring system to support her peers.
Her family said she was loved for her 'warmth, kindness and joyful character', the court was told.
She was first admitted to the Hepworth Ward in May 2012 with a diagnosis including non-specific eating disorder and bipolar affective disorder, jurors heard.
During her time on the acute psychiatric ward, the trust failed to remove plastic items from the communal toilets or keep them locked, even though she repeatedly used the items to try to kill herself.
She had used plastic from the toilets to self-harm on at least 10 previous occasions.
However, the court heard of eight more incidents involving similar materials before Ms Figueiredo killed herself.
The suicide attempts were recorded in ward notes and other hospital records.
Aninakwa, who was subject to a performance improvement plan, had failed to remove plastic that could be used for self-harm and failed to ensure incidents of self-harm were recorded, considered and addressed, jurors heard.
Aninakwa and the trust had denied wrongdoing but declined to give evidence.
The nurse had denied knowing about all the previous suicide attempts and said what action he took was overruled by management.
It was claimed on his behalf that there was heightened observation to prevent incidents of self harm, which mitigated the fact plastic material was not removed and the communal toilets not locked.
The trust also denied knowledge of the incidents, claiming the ward had not reported them.
The process of removing plastics from the communal toilets was complicated by issues of infection control and preventing staff from being exposed to hazardous material in the bins, such as needles.
The investigation into Ms Figueiredo's death began in 2016 but charges were not brought until September 2023.
The first corporate manslaughter trial against an NHS trust collapsed in 2016 after a judge ruled there was no case to answer.
Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust was accused over the death of schoolteacher Frances Cappuccini, 30, the first prosecution of a health service body since the offence was introduced in 2008.
She went into cardiac arrest and died after an emergency Caesarean section at Tunbridge Wells Hospital in Pembury, Kent, on October 9 2012.
The sentence for corporate manslaughter is a fine of between £180,000 and £20 million depending on the size of the organisation.
Judge Richard Marks KC thanked jurors for their 'immense hard work' and discharged them from jury service for the rest of their lives.
He thanked Ms Figueiredo's parents for their attendance throughout the trial, saying: 'It speaks volumes for both of you, and the immense love you have for Alice.'
'I hope this provides some consolation and some closure,' he added.
Alice Figueiredo's mother said she and her family have faced a 'relentless uphill slog' in pursuing justice for her daughter.
Speaking after the verdicts outside the Old Bailey, Jane Figueiredo said: 'Today's verdicts have come after almost 10 years of a relentless uphill slog pursuing justice, accountability and truth for the five months of deplorable failings in Alice's care which directly led to her death in 2015.
'We will always personally believe and feel that Alice was effectively killed due to an appalling level of negligence which was very easily preventable after 19 incidents with the same or very similar risk item provided and allowed by the ward itself.
'Such a level of complacency was reckless and indefensible.'
Alice Figueiredo's mother said a wounded animal would have received more attentive care than her daughter did.
Reading a statement to reporters outside the Old Bailey, Jane Figueiredo said: 'Frankly, a wounded animal would have received safer, more attentive, compassionate care at the vets than Alice received on this ward.
'The final months of her life was a disastrous catalogue of dehumanising, at times miserably brutalising, neglectful experiences often lacking in compassion, vigilance and even basic humanity.
'It does not cost NHS hospitals and their staff more to be kind, compassionate and diligent within their duties.
'The evidence we've experienced and seen was that the ethos on this ward in 2015 was characterised by complacency, collusion, cover up, and in many ways, chaos, for which Alice, at the age of 22 paid the price with her precious life - which was treated both as worthless and worth less.'