Care home ‘cover-up’ after man found dead on floor

PANICKING staff at a care home who found an elderly man dead on the floor lifted him back into bed and then told relatives he ‘died peacefully in his sleep,’ a court heard.

Retired milkman Ronald Dean, a devout Catholic, 86, was discovered lifeless on his knees in a praying position in his ‘freezing’ room where a window had been left open on January 8 last year.

He had previously been in ‘high spirits’ and was due to give his daughter away at her wedding on the day of his death.

The amateur singer had been a resident of Lever Edge Care home in Bolton for six months and was supposed to receive round-the-clock care for ailments including Alzheimer’s.

But that Friday night only five of six staff were on duty, so one carer, Danielle Menzies, was left to cope on a section for residents with dementia on her own, the court heard. She failed to check him at 6am and found his naked body on the floor at 6.30am.

A ‘panicking’ Ms Menzies told colleagues and Deborah Scrivens, the deputy manager, called her boss, Lynda Johnson, who ordered her staff to put the body back into the bed and inform his family he had ‘died peacefully in his sleep,’ prosecutor Neil Fryman told Bolton Crown Court.

Two colleagues refused as they believed it was a ‘cover-up over staff shortages.’

But other members of staff, including Scrivens, lifted Mr Dean back into his bed and clothed him.

Johnson later told police she ‘could not bear’ to tell his family the true circumstances.

Neither the police nor the coroner were informed and the case only began to unravel when a whistleblower alerted the authorities.

A post-mortem examination concluded Mr Dean died of cardiac respiratory failure which ‘may not have been as a result of the care or lack of care he received.’

Johnson, 64, of Calf Hey Close, Radcliffe, was handed a 12-month community order, ordered to carry out 120 hours’ unpaid work and was told pay £2,000 towards prosecution costs.

Scrivens, 44, of Hurstwood, Bolton, who is said to be very unwell, was given a six-month community order and placed on a 90-day electronically monitored curfew.

Both had pleaded guilty to a charge of obstructing the coroner. The Crown decided not to pursue charges of perverting the course of justice.

The Crown offered no evidence against Michelle Hayes, 48, Woodvale Avenue, Bolton; Danielle Menzies, 22, of Glenbrook Gardens, Farnworth; and Michelle Gilman, 44, of Moorby Walk, Bolton, who had been charged with perverting the course of justice.