Whorlton Hall Sentencing Hearing: Sentencing remarks HHJ Smith

HHJ Smith indicated early in today’s hearing that he would make his sentencing remarks available once the case had concluded. I am immensely grateful as it ensures the accuracy in what I report here. I’ll post them here in their entirety without my comment. That may follow at a later date. The only change I […]

Whorlton Hall Sentencing Hearing: Pleas in mitigation

Defence pleas in mitigation Next up counsel for the defendants offered pleas in mitigation. These are things that might reduce a sentence, difficulties defendants were or are facing, caring responsibilities, remorse and so on. Peter Bennett Mr Callan started by returning to the authorities discussed by Ms Richardson and HHJ Smith when discussing sentence guidelines. […]

Whorlton Hall Sentencing Hearing: Context and victim impact statements

Almost nine months after they were convicted, four defendants, Peter Bennett, Matthew Banner, Ryan Fuller and John Sanderson, who were all former care workers at Whorlton Hall were in court in Teeside today for their sentencing hearing. Peter Bennett was found guilty on two counts, Matthew Banner on five counts, Ryan Fuller on two counts […]

Whorlton Hall Sentences

Almost nine months after they were convicted, four defendants, Peter Bennett, Matthew Banner, Ryan Fuller and John Sanderson, who were all former care workers at Whorlton Hall were in court in Teeside today for their sentencing hearing. Peter Bennett was found guilty on two counts, Matthew Banner on five counts, Ryan Fuller on two counts […]

November’s inadequate care

There were a smaller number of reports published in November than previous months, but I’ll highlight the ones that were providing support to autistic and learning disabled people. I’m not covering providers that have since closed down, because I’ll do all of those later. First up, Ashfield Care Homes Limited in New Milton, Hampshire. This […]

Round up of October 2023 inadequacies

Still playing catch up, have moved to a sprinkling of reports of inadequate care for autistic people and people with a learning disability, published in October 2023. We’ll start with our friends Achieve Together, I’ve written about their inadequate care before here, here and here. Remember they’re the ones that claim they “endeavour to be […]

September’s deathmaking

Eighteen months ago, in July 2022, I started curating on this website reports published by CQC into care and support for learning disabled and autistic people, that was rated as outstanding or inadequate. In this post I’ll share some of the recently published low lights. One of the things I feel that needs acknowledging before […]

Jessie Eastland-Seares Inquest: Family Statement

We welcome the Jury’s findings and feel they got a real sense of who Jessie was, of all her difficulties, and the fight as parents that we have had with health services and East Sussex County Council, since 2016.  Jessie was often misunderstood and badly treated since she was 14. This added layers of traumatic […]

Jessie’s Inquest: Conclusion

The coroner called the jury back to court shortly before 5pm to see what position they were in and how much more time they thought they needed for deliberations. Coroner: Members of the jury I wonder if the foreman or forelady could stand please They do Coroner: Members of the jury you’ve now been deliberating […]

Jessie’s Inquest: Matters left to the jury

Before lunch on Day 9 the coroner summed up the evidence in Jessie’s inquest. She explained to the jury what their role entailed, what findings they needed to make and talked them through the record of inquest. The coroner told the jury that their findings must be based solely on what they heard in court […]