Death of girl left alone by fake ID worker was unlawful, jury inquest concludes

Independent

3 days ago

The death of a teenage girl, who was left alone at a children's mental health ward by an inexperienced agency worker using fake ID, has been ruled as an unlawful killing by an inquest jury.
Ruth Szymankiewicz was being treated for an eating disorder at Huntercombe Hospital in Berkshire and had been placed under strict one-to-one observation when on February 12 2022, she was left on her own by the member of staff responsible for watching her.
The 14-year-old was able to shut herself in her bedroom at the hospital's psychiatric intensive care unit – also known as Thames ward – where she self-harmed.
She died two days later at John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford.
On Thursday, an inquest jury sitting at Buckinghamshire Coroner's Court in Beaconsfield returned a conclusion of unlawful killing.
'Ruth was not prevented from accessing the harmful material which could be used to self-harm,' the jury foreman told the hearing.
'Ruth's care was insufficient to allow for discharge.'
The foreman added Ms Szymankiewicz's parents were not given 'adequate information' about her care on the ward.
Jurors could be seen crying as they recorded their conclusion, as well as the coroner and members of the family.
The agency worker responsible for watching Ms Szymankiewicz – a man then known as Ebo Acheampong – had never worked in a psychiatric hospital environment before coming to Huntercombe on February 12 2022 for his first shift.
A police investigation later found he was hired by the Platinum agency – which supplied staff for Huntercombe Hospital – under a false name.
Mr Acheampong never returned to work at the hospital following the incident and fled the UK for Ghana.
The court heard the ward was missing at least half of its staff on the day Ms Szymankiewicz, who had self harmed several times in the past, was left unsupervised.
Mr Acheampong was originally working on a different ward, but was asked to join the team on Thames ward because they were so short-staffed nurses could not go on breaks, jurors were previously told.
A risk management form known as a 'Datix incident' had been filed on the day by Michelle Hancey – a support worker with 18 years' experience at Huntercombe – who raised concerns the Thames ward team would 'fail to monitor patients on prescribed special observation because of staff shortage'.
During the inquest, jurors were shown CCTV footage of the moment Mr Acheampong left Ms Szymankiewicz unsupervised while she sat in the ward's lounge watching TV, enabling her to leave the room.
She had been placed on the 'level three observation' plan following earlier incidents of self-harm – meaning she had to be kept within eyesight at all times.
In the footage, Mr Acheampong can be seen leaving the room repeatedly – at first only for seconds at a time, then for two minutes – prompting the teenager to walk up to the door and look into the lobby, seemingly waiting for the opportunity to leave the room.
She was last captured on CCTV walking out of the ward's day room 'completely on her own' before going straight to her bedroom and closing the door behind her, coroner Ian Wade KC told the inquest.
Around 15 minutes passed before a nurse discovered the teenage girl and raised the alarm.
Huntercombe Hospital had been inspected twice by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) prior to the incident, the inquest previously heard.
It was rated as 'overall inadequate' in a CQC report dated February 2021.
Active Care Group, which owned Huntercombe at the time of Ms Szymankiewicz's death, has since closed the facility.