Whorlton Hall Prosecution – 9 March 2023
The jury aren’t in court today as initially planned. Instead the day is reserved for legal directions. I’ll be back in court tomorrow when the jury return.
The jury aren’t in court today as initially planned. Instead the day is reserved for legal directions. I’ll be back in court tomorrow when the jury return.
The trial of 9 employees of the Cygnet run ‘independent hospital’, Whorlton Hall in Barnard Castle, County Durham was opened yesterday at Teesside Crown Court. HHJ Smith introduced the jury bundle to them, before asking Ms Richardson, for the Crown, to open the case. She introduced to the jury who was in court, ending with […]
This is my final blog post relating to Peter’s second inquest, you can find all the earlier ones here and here and here and here and here and here and the conclusion is summarised here. At the end of an inquest it’s not unusual for a coroner to hear evidence from any interested person’s who […]
There were so many issues that emerged during the court of Peter’s second inquest. I can’t blog about all of them, but I wanted to just focus on record keeping and decision making at Oaks & Woodcroft, before the final post which will focus on the Prevention of Future Deaths evidence given by the Director […]
I’ve written a number of posts reporting Peter’s second inquest now, a quick recap incase this is the first one you’re coming to. There’s one about how he came to be in the care of the Priory Group here, one about support worker Siobhan Cator and her understanding of 1-1 supervision and refusal to have […]
Peter’s second inquest concluded this afternoon. I’ve more posts in draft which I’ll get to later, that detail the evidence told to the court, but I’m skipping ahead to what the coroner found. I’m not going to report all of the coroner’s summing up, because that would be duplication, but I’ll report the findings she […]
Peter’s Eating, Drinking and Swallowing Care Plan has been referenced throughout his second inquest (and was also a key feature of his first inquest). There’s a post detailing it’s content, how the Speech and Language Therapist Ms Debbage assessed his swallow, and the staff’s understanding of it here: Peter’s SALT plan ends with clear instructions […]
On Monday we heard from Sally Debbage, the Speech and Language Specialist Lead for Learning Disability Services in Norfolk. She expedited an appointment, visiting Peter at the Oaks and Woodcroft home, within a day of him arriving. She explained that she felt she needed to conduct the swallowing assessment promptly as the “previous directions weren’t […]
Siobhan Cator, a former support worker at the Priory Oaks and Woodcroft home, gave evidence to the coroner today at Peter’s second inquest. She was questioned for 1hrs 45minutes by the coroner Jacqueline Lake, Mr Cridland for Peter’s family and Ms Sutton for the Priory Group. She ended her evidence with Ms Sutton asking her […]
In May 2018, almost 5 years ago, Peter Seaby died at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital, following his admission the previous day from the Priory Group Oaks and Woodcroft care home in Dereham, Norfolk. His cause of death was aspiration pneumonia. In August 2021 Peter’s first inquest took place. I spoke to his sister […]