Prosecution delivers opening statement as local mental health trust and one of its staff is put on trial over young woman’s death, reports Sebastian Mann, Local Democracy Reporter
An inpatient at a London hospital took her own life after an NHS worker “took no sufficient steps” to remove communal bin bags from her ward, a court has heard.
Alice Figueiredo died by suicide on 7th July 2015 while detained in a mental health ward at Goodmayes Hospital.
Benjamin Aninakwa, the former manager of Hepworth ward, where Alice had been detained, has denied gross negligence manslaughter and an offence under the Health and Safety Act alleging he failed to take reasonable care of patients on the ward.
Duncan Atkinson KC, prosecuting, said Aninakwa “owed a duty of care” to Alice, which included “taking reasonable steps to remove from her the means of suicide, informed by his own knowledge as to the risk of self-harm”.
He said: “Although he was on notice that she had repeatedly used a bin bag in earlier attempts at self-harm – which attempts clearly included a risk of death – and that such bags remained capable of such use, he took no sufficient steps to remove such bags from the ward.”
Between February and July 2015, Alice, 22, had attempted to kill or harm herself 39 individual times. On 18 occasions, she had got hold of a bin liner with the intent to commit suicide, Atkinson said.
Though there were no bin bags in her room, they were present in communal areas and toilets, which patients had access to.
Aninakwa, 52, had also failed to properly record incidents of self-harm on the ward, which meant incidents were not acted on or considered, the prosecution claimed.
He added that it was the responsibility of both Aninakwa and North East London NHS Foundation Trust (NELFT) to have addressed “this very real and serious risk to Alice’s life”.
Representatives for NELFT, which oversees mental healthcare services across Barking and Dagenham, Havering, Redbridge and Waltham Forest, pleaded not guilty to corporate manslaughter and a charge of failing to ensure the safety of non-employees under the same act.
Atkinson told the jury that senior management of the trust and the way it was run “were at least in part responsible”.
He said the “failure” in managing risks on the ward “through determined and concerted steps to remove bin liners,” the “failure” to “properly record and analyse” incidents of self-harm, and the “failure” to issue guidance on making such items “inaccessible to patients like Alice” could be attributed to senior management.
The prosecution also argued that, at the time of Alice’s death, there was a growing awareness among national health bodies about the “risk posed” by such items.
NELFT was quoted as saying “no national guidelines” had been issued regarding bin liners on such wards, but it “seemed the topic was on some mental health trusts’ radar and seemingly gained some traction in the mid-2010s”.
The prosecution added: “The absence of a national policy requiring the removal of plastic bags cannot cure the fact that it was part of the defendant’s role, as ward manager, to identify potential risks and take appropriate action to remove such risks.”
Both parties have denied all counts and are being represented by separate defence teams.
Members of Alice’s family were present in the Old Bailey courtroom today (4th November), where the case is being heard.
The 22-year-old was described as someone loved for her “warmth, kindness and joyful character”.
She was first admitted to the Hepworth ward in May 2012.
The trial is expected to last around three months, until January next year.
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