Latest news with #corporateManslaughter
BBC News
6 days ago
- Health
- BBC News
Frances Norris death: Bracknell care home boss struck off
A director of a care company fined £1m following the death of a dementia patient who was put into a scalding bath has been struck off the nursing Jeebun was a director of Aster Healthcare Limited, which was fined for corporate manslaughter after Frances Norris, 93, died three days after the incident at the Birdsgrove Nursing Home in Bracknell in Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) panel found Mr Jeebun showed "a long-term disregard for patient safety" and that the incident was part of "a pattern of serious failings".Police investigated Mr Jeebun but he was not prosecuted after Aster Healthcare Limited admitted corporate manslaughter in 2021. The home shut in 2016. Mrs Norris was in the bath for "several minutes" before staff realised the water was too hot. When she was taken to hospital, it was found 12% of her body had been covered in serious Jeebun was the most senior person in the home responsible for health and safety, a report found. The NMC said "several official organisations" raised concerns about its thermostatic mixing valves (TMVs) "on more than one occasion".But it found Mr Jeebun set a £200 spending limit for staff that could not be exceeded without his panel found the risk of residents being scalded was "entirely foreseeable" and had been "aggravated by [his] cost-cutting at the expense of safety". 'Absence of accountability' It said he tried replace the TMV in the bath where Mrs Norris was scalded before investigators could seize Jeebun also told a junior colleague to fabricate records of water temperatures or face losing his job, the NMC March 2020, while still under police investigation, Mr Jeebun wrote to the NMC in an effort to have his nursing registration cancelled NMC said that showed his "lack of insight and absence of accountability".In 2021 home manager Elisabeth West and carer Noel Maida were given suspended prison sentences over Ms Norris's death after admitting they failed to discharge their duties correctly. Ms Norris's family previously paid tribute to her as a "warm, generous and kind-hearted" woman. You can follow BBC Berkshire on Facebook, X (Twitter), or Instagram.
Telegraph
26-05-2025
- Health
- Telegraph
Nottingham victims' families call for manslaughter charges against NHS
The families of the Nottingham attack victims have called for corporate manslaughter charges to be brought against the NHS. Dr Sanjoy Kumar, the father of Grace O'Malley-Kumar, said staff had failed 'at every level' after it emerged the man who killed his daughter was sectioned four times and let go without an effective plan in place on each occasion. Valdo Calocane killed O'Malley-Kumar, 19, alongside fellow student Barnaby Webber, 19, and caretaker Ian Coates, 65, before attempting to kill three other people in Nottingham in June 2023. Calocane, 34, was originally charged with murder, but this was downgraded to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility because of his paranoid schizophrenia. There have been two major reports into Calocane's treatment before the killings, but Dr Kumar told The Telegraph he rejected their findings. He said that while they highlighted errors and made recommendations, individuals had still not been held accountable. Dr Kumar said: 'They need to pay the price with legal action like corporate manslaughter.' He said the families of the victims would be travelling to London to meet Wes Streeting, the Health Secretary, next month to ask him to hold individual medical staff accountable. Dr Kumar said the families had been failed by staff working at 'every level' within Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust. 'It is clear they don't learn lessons,' he said. 'I will now endeavour to get all the staff and psychiatrists named who failed us. That is how we will stop this national epidemic of mental health-related homicide by holding individuals accountable. 'Calocane, the monster, was sectioned four times. Each time the lazy medics did nothing new in their management. They left this 30-year-old animal with 17 to 18-year-old students in the same halls of residence.' An independent review into Calocane's treatment history before the killings was published in full in February However, NHS officials had initially only planned to publish a summary of the 302-page report as they were concerned it contained his confidential medical details. It was only after the families raised concerns that NHS England made an about-turn and agreed to publish it in full. Dr Kumar said: 'If someone needed four hip replacements, their orthopaedic surgeon would be held accountable. So why, if someone is sectioned four times, are medics not held accountable? 'My mission is to end all mental health homicide in our country in the name of my brave and beautiful daughter. We must live in the safest country in Europe, our children in schools, on buses and colleges must be safe. All our relatives must be safe.' The investigation highlighted repeated failures to treat Calocane's paranoid schizophrenia and escalating violent outbursts. Doctors responsible for his care ignored repeated requests for Calocane to be given a community treatment order and long-acting antipsychotic drugs, despite pleas from nurses treating him in the community, who managed the risk to themselves by not visiting him alone. He was admitted to hospital and sectioned under the Mental Health Act four times between 2020 and 2022 because of his violent behaviour and refusal to take his medication. Mental health services eventually lost track of him and discharged him to a GP in the months before the attacks. Violent psychosis The investigation found Calocane's care team accepted he did not want to take a long-lasting antipsychotic drug for reasons including 'him not liking needles'. The authors also echoed concerns from a report published six months before by the Care Quality Commission, which identified five missed opportunities to deal with Calocane's violent psychosis. It found Calocane regularly failed to take his schizophrenia medication and there was a 'theme running through his clinical records' that he did not believe he was ill. Last week, the terms of reference for the public inquiry, which will begin hearing evidence later this year, were published for the first time. It will examine the role of prosecutors, police and medical staff in the years leading up to the killings, and their response in the aftermath. Nottinghamshire Police has previously admitted it should have done more to arrest Calocane sooner. A warrant for his arrest in relation to an assault on an emergency worker had been outstanding for nine months before the killings. The inquiry will also look at the police decision not to take toxicology samples from Calocane following the attack.
The Independent
06-05-2025
- The Independent
Pontins in court over death of grandmother at resort
The parent company of Pontins holiday parks has appeared in court in connection with a grandmother's death. Eighteen people were injured at the Brean Sands site near Burnham-on-Sea in Somerset in February 2019 when a 40-metre section of structural ducting and ceiling fell inside an entertainment area. Grandmother Wendy Jones, 68, was among six people taken to hospital after she sustained serious injuries. She died in August 2019. Pontins' parent company, Britannia Jinky Jersey Ltd, has been accused of corporate manslaughter between January 1, 2015 and February 21, 2019. The charge alleges the company 'managed and organised its activities in such a way so as to cause the death of Wendy Jones in that exposed Wendy Jones to the risk of death from the collapse of the ventilation ducting, which was positioned at height in the Fun Factory at its Brean Sands site, in gross breach of its duty to take reasonable care for the safety of Wendy Jones as an organisation carrying out activities on a commercial basis and as an occupier of premises'. Stephen Bennison, 59, of Farington, Lancashire, has been charged with failing to discharge general health/safety duty to a person other than an employee under Section 3 of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 between January 1, 2015 and February 21, 2019. The charge alleges he 'being self-employed within the meaning of the Health and Safety at Work Act failed to conduct his undertaking, namely as a contractor carrying out sound-prodding work at Pontins Brean Sands in such a way as to ensure so far as reasonably practicable that persons not being his employees and who may be affected thereby, namely members of the public, including Wendy Jones, were not exposed to risks to their health and safety, namely the risk posed by overloaded ductwork in the Fun Factory'. The two defendants appeared before Bristol Magistrates' Court where District Judge Lynne Matthews sent the case to Bristol Crown Court for trial, where they will next appear on June 9. They did not enter any pleas to the respective charges they face. Bennison was released on unconditional bail. Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service confirmed at the time it had been called to reports of a section of ducting collapsing into the bar area of a building at the holiday park. It said approximately 40 metres of structural ducting and ceiling sections had fallen, exposing live damaged electrics. Pontins Brean Sands is currently closed to tourists, with EDF housing workers at the holiday park as part of the Hinkley Point C project. The energy giant has a three-year-deal with Britannia, who owns Pontins, to use it for their workers until it reverts back to a holiday spot in either 2026 or 2027.
