Failures that could have led to Natasha’s killing
IT was the one place she should have felt safe but Natasha Wild was stabbed to death in her own home by her partner.
The fatal attack in November 2016 wasn’t an isolated incident.
There were warning signs about her boyfriend Lloyd Brackenbury that the police and the mental health teams had failed to act on.
And those failings could have contributed to her death at their home in Syke.
Lloyd was found guilty of manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility at Manchester Crown Court in 2017 when he was 32 and was ordered to be detained in a psychiatric hospital. He was cleared of murder.
An eight-day inquest into Natasha’s death, which concluded on Wednesday heard Lloyd was a paranoid schizophrenic. He began experiencing mental health problems when he was studying forensic science at Manchester University.
He was diagnosed at the age of 21 after he was admitted to the John Elliott mental health unit at Birch Hill hospital in Rochdale.
He met Natasha in 2008, they began dating in 2015 and moved in together in September 2016.
Natasha, who had cerebral palsy, was a student at Liverpool Hope University. She was funding her studies by working as a dinner lady.
In June 2005, Natasha’s brother, step sister and step sister’s daughter died with a family friend in a house fire caused by an electrical fault in a tumble dryer, the court previously heard.
Diary entries made by Natasha described how Lloyd made taunts about her late sister. He told her he would be ‘better off’ with prostitutes and suspected she was having an affair with fashion designer Jimmy Choo.
Lloyd repeatedly refused to engage with mental health workers. He drunkenly kicked the back door of their home and threatened to kill neighbours months before Natasha’s death.
He had been under the care of Rochdale Early Intervention Service, provided by Pennine Care Trust, which assists people with psychosis.
Staff discharged Lloyd back into the care of his GP on November 9, 20 days before Natasha’s death. It was a decision which ‘possibly contributed to (her) death,’ a jury concluded.
Mental health workers from the trust did not place him in the ‘red zone’ in the traffic light system they use to assess a patient’s risk to themselves or others, despite his behaviour.
This was ‘inappropriate’ and ‘possibly contributed to (her) death,’ a jury concluded.
Ten days before she died, Natasha and her mum Susan Wild went to see Lloyd’s mum Linda Brackenbury to raise concerns about his behaviour.
Natasha confessed that Lloyd had held a knife to her neck, and had previously thrown her to the floor of their home.
“At this point I said ‘We need to get Lloyd sectioned.’ He was going to hurt Natasha”, Mrs Brackenbury said.
She told the court she called the ‘mental health crisis team’ but was told they ‘couldn’t come out’ because there was only one person in the office.
Coroner Lisa Judge told the court the ‘approved mental health act professional’ from the council who dealt with the case that night should have arranged for Lloyd to be assessed, straight away or soon after.
The fact the incident was not referred to the emergency duty team ‘possibly contributed to Natasha Wild’s death,’ the jury found.
Mrs Brackenbury then called 999 and asked for the police and an ambulance to go to Lloyd’s house.
Mrs Brackenbury and Natasha had to wait five hours before police arrived.
When officers turned up, Lloyd refused to let them in.
Officers took Mrs Brackenbury home and Natasha to her mum’s house. Natasha returned to the home she shared with Lloyd a short time later in a taxi.
The officers who attended the home ‘failed to follow’ domestic abuse policy, and treated the call as a mental health matter, the inquest concluded.
The officers also failed to ‘adequately read the diary prepared by Natasha’ on her laptop, in which potential criminal offences were disclosed. This failure ‘possibly contributed to (her) death,’ the jury found.
A jury concluded that Lloyd ‘should have been arrested by the police officer and failure to do so could have possibly contributed to Natasha’s death.’
The court also heard how ‘incomplete’ information was passed onto paramedics at the scene, which meant they were unaware of the potential risks of
Lloyd refusing treatment.
“The time clinicians spent on scene was not adequate to carry out an assessment of the patient’s needs”, the inquest heard.
The jury found Natasha died of unlawful killing. Her medical cause of death was a stab wound to the neck.
Police released a statement after the hearing.
They said: “GMP accept the findings and our thoughts remain with Natasha’s family and loved ones.
“The service provided by our officers was not acceptable and for this we deeply apologise. We would like to reassure anyone who is suffering abuse of any kind from a partner, ex-partner or family member that we take reports of this nature seriously.”
A number of changes have been implemented at Pennine Care Trust and Rochdale Council’s adult services following Natasha’s death.
Dr Henry Ticehurst, Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust’s medical director, said: “Natasha’s death was a tragedy and our thoughts are, as always, with her family and friends who have to live with this terrible loss.
“We recognise that the circumstances surrounding Natasha’s death have raised concerns and we have already implemented a significant number of operational improvements and changes in the last three years.
“We cooperated fully with this inquest and will consider the coroner’s recommendations as a matter of priority.”
Sally McIvor, Rochdale
Council’s director of adult care, said: “This was a terrible loss of a young life and we would like to express our deepest condolences to Natasha’s family and friends.
“We cooperated fully with the inquest throughout and the coroner found that, since Natasha’s tragic murder, a significant number of operational changes and improvements have been made and implemented across services.
“We will continue to take robust action to ensure the safety and wellbeing of our residents is always our number one priority.”
A North West Ambulance Service spokesperson said: “We would like to express our sincere condolences to the family of Ms Wild for their tragic loss.
“We welcome the coroner’s findings and accept that although there was a miscommunication within our emergency operations centre, this was not a contributing factor to Ms Wild’s death. Lessons have been learnt for the organisation as a result of a full internal review into this matter and changes have been made to avoid a similar situation happening again in the future. All emergency medical dispatchers now spend a period of time with a dispatcher as part of their mentorship so that they fully understand how messages are communicated through to ambulance crews.”