North East London Foundation Trust and a mental health ward manager were found to not have done enough to prevent Alice Figueiredo’s death in 2015, reports Sebastian Mann, Local Democracy Reporter

The parents of a young woman who died during her stay on a mental health ward say the NHS’ “complacency” was “reckless and indefensible”.

Alice Figueiredo died in the Hepworth ward in Goodmayes Hospital in July 2015, having been sectioned under the Mental Health Act. She was 22 years old, with a history of depression, bipolar and an eating disorder.

She had used a bin bag, taken from a communal toilet. Her fatal attempt was the 19th time she had used such a means to harm herself during her five month stay. Despite the repeated incidents, the bags were not removed from the ward.

Her death led to North East London Foundation NHS Trust (NELFT), which oversees healthcare in Barking & Dagenham, Havering, Redbridge, and Waltham Forest, being charged with corporate manslaughter.

It was the first time an NHS trust had been charged in relation to a patient taking their own life, and the second time a trust had been charged with corporate manslaughter.

Jurors in the Old Bailey deliberated for a total of 24 days – the joint-longest deliberation in UK legal history – to reach their verdicts.

They found the trust and Benjamin Aninakwa, the ward manager at the time of Alice’s death, did not do enough to prevent her death. Both were convicted under the Health and Safety at Work Act.

However, both were cleared of the more serious charge of manslaughter. Aninakwa was facing charges of gross negligence manslaughter, but was acquitted.

NELFT has said it will “reflect on the verdict and its implications” as it “continues to develop” its services.

Alice’s mother Jane Figueiredo and stepfather Max Figueiredo regularly attended the trial, which lasted from seven months between October and June.

Speaking after the trial, they said the trust’s “complacency” was “reckless and indefensible”.

Jane said on Monday, 9th June: “Today’s verdicts have come after almost ten years of a relentless uphill slog, pursuing justice, accountability and truth for the five months of deplorable failings in Alice’s care at Goodmayes Hospital, which directly led to her death in 2015.”

She said “Alice’s light and life shone so brightly” and everyone who “knew and loved her” has spent the last decade “devastated by the immeasurable loss of her luminous, kind, thoughtful, generous, warm, humorous and deeply loving presence, always feeling her absence at every occasion and in our everyday lives”.

She added: “Nothing, including these verdicts, will ever bring her back to us and we will never stop thinking of her and missing her. There’s always one place empty at our table, one very special voice silent that we long to hear in our conversations.”

The night before Alice died, she texted with her boyfriend about Bob Dylan’s music. They had attended a Fleetwood Mac concert in June, at the O2 arena, which Alice had been given night leave for.

She stayed at home with her family, and it was seen as a sign she was making improvements.

In the early hours of 7th July, Alice was found unresponsive in the communal toilet by a nurse. Two nurses on the ward were slow calling an ambulance, and Alice died at another hospital.

Max said: “During these last six months, we have had to painfully endure listening to both defence teams’ characterisation of Alice as a hopeless case with a long-term prognosis that was terminal and that her life would be inevitably short. Nothing could have been further from the truth.

“Alice died because of negligence and indifference from a number of the staff at NELFT who failed to keep her safe. There is scant consolation for me in this verdict because nobody can give us Alice back.”

He said that his stepdaughter’s death had left a “big hole in my life that I will never, ever be able to fill”.

He said: “Alice was a great friend, loving aunt to her nephew and niece and would have made a great partner and mum.

“I have been able to proudly walk two of my daughters down the aisle and those were proud moments for me. That is something I know I will never be able to do with our Alice. That breaks my heart.

“It is my deepest hope that no other father will have to experience such heartache and regret.”

Speaking directly to the Figueiredos after the verdict, Judge Richard Marks KC said it was clear Alice was an extremely special young woman and “their immense love for her had been very apparent,” the BBC reported.

Sentences are expected to be handed down in September.

A spokesperson for NELFT said: “Our thoughts are with Alice’s family and loved ones, who lost her at such a young age. We extend our deepest sympathy for the pain and heartbreak they have suffered this past ten years.

“We will reflect on the verdict and its implications, both for the Trust and mental health provision more broadly as we continue to work to develop services for the communities we serve.”

NELFT has been at the centre of a series of tragedies in recent years.

Between April 2019 and April 2024, the trust paid out more than £1.3million across 50 mental health negligence cases. It was the second highest rate of pay-outs of the 16 trusts in London, behind only East London NHS Foundation Trust.

In May 2023, a Waltham Forest teenager took her own life while under the care of NELFT.

Coroner Nadia Persaud concluded that “there was a lack of safety planning” on 18-year-old Emily Burns’ discharge from NELFT’s child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) and “a poor transition” from CAMHS to adult mental health services.

A spokesperson for the trust said in December it had been “working hard” to improve its medical reviews for patients and had implemented new methods for assessing risks.

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