Monday and Tuesday this week Assistant Coroner for Swansea, Aled Gruffydd, heard evidence in the inquest touching on the death of Shane West. He concluded the inquest yesterday, and stated his intention to issue a Prevention of Future Death Report to reflect what the court had heard over the past few days. I haven’t had […]
Last night I was up in London for an event organised by the Learning Disability Network London. When I was asked to speak I knew I’d struggle to turn down the invitation given the other speakers on the bill, Alexis Quinn, Sara Ryan and Amanda Topps, with chairing by Simon Jarrett. But before I agreed […]
I’ve been away from my laptop for a few days, ignored twitter, took some time away, swam in the sea (well more like just jumped the battering waves and felt glad to be alive and so small and insignificant in things), gave blood, visited friends, usual everyday things. Nothing wild but a break of sorts, […]
[Summary version: How Sally Lewis was failed, neglectfully, by Dimensions, Julie Campbell, Julie McGirr and all of those so called Support Workers responsible for providing her basic care. And how Sally was failed again by CQC]. Earlier this week Sally Lewis’s inquest concluded, with the coroner finding that her death was contributed to by the […]
I’ve written about apologies before, about the value of candour, about non apologies, the othering of learning disabled people and allegedly inquisitorial inquests. Today I’m more than a bit disappointed, but if I’m honest not surprised, to add Dimensions UK to the list. This is a post I wrote before Sally’s inquest started. In it […]
The final person called to give evidence at Sally’s inquest was Susan Wall, an Inspector at the CQC. The coroner had already explained in court that he was not calling Susan Wall to provide any evidence relating to Sally’s death, but to explain the timeline of their action that led to the failed criminal prosecution. […]
The second witness called to give evidence on the final day of Sally’s inquest, was Helen Orford, who is now Managing Director of Discovery, which she described as a subsidiary of the Dimensions Group, at the time of Sally’s death, she told the court she was Regional Managing Director for Dimensions. She said that she’d […]
On the final day of Sally’s inquest the coroner opened with Julie, Sally’s sister. First she read a pen portrait of who Sally was and what she meant to her family, you can read it here. Next the coroner said he’d read parts of Julie’s statement onto the record. He told the court that this […]
You can read the coroner’s summing up in three posts: Conclusion 1, Conclusion 2 and Conclusion 3. In this post I report on the coroner’s conclusion. This is what he said. I’ve considered Professor Gilmore’s evidence carefully, I now incorporate into these findings the evidence of Professor Gilmore which I accepted. I make these findings […]
Conclusion 1 reported the coroner’s summing up of events up until the day before Sally died. Conclusion 2 reported the coroner’s summing up of the events surrounding Sally’s death, post mortem evidence and cause of death. This post will discuss the coroner’s summing up in relation to what happened after Sally’s death including an internal […]