Detective in hospital deaths scandal runs care f irm for elderly
Families’ shock at his new role after he stopped probe into how 650 patients died
A SENIOR detective at the centre of claims that police covered up the deaths of hundreds of elderly hospital patients now runs a home care service for the elderly, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.
Detective Superintendent John James shut down a criminal investigation in 2002 despite warnings from medical experts that Dr Jane Barton was prescribing powerful painkillers to patients that they did not need.
An official independent report revealed last week that as many as 650 patients at Gosport War Memorial Hospital, Hampshire, may have died between 1988 and 2000 due to an ‘institutionalised regime’ of prescribing and administering ‘dangerous’ amounts of a medication that were not clinically justified.
The report found that Det Supt James had expressed reservations about ‘raising massive public concerns’ and halted the police investigation without consulting lawyers at the Crown Prosecution Service.
He may also have had a conflict of interest at the time because he had set up a care home for disabled adults and children with family members, the report found.
Grieving f amilies l ast night demanded to know why Det Supt James was allowed to retire on a full pension in 2005 before their complaints against him were investigated by the Independent Police Complaints Commission.
They also voiced dismay that the 67-year-old runs Hamble Valley Care Ltd, which provides care visits to elderly people across Hampshire.
Gillian Mackenzie, whose mother Gladys Richards, 91, died at the Gosport hospital in 1998, said: ‘I find it absolutely incredible this man could be in charge of the care of elderly people. He took no notice of our cases. He went out of his way to shut down the police investigation.’
During an internal police review into the Gosport case, Mr James admitted he had ‘failed to effectively perform’ his duty.
He also accepted that ‘ some aspects of the investigation fell short of the very high standards that I set for myself’ but argued he was trying to balance ‘a range of competing interests in a complex matter’. He did not respond to requests for comment this weekend.
After being criticised in last week’s independent report, Hampshire police announced they would hand over their investigations to another force.
Mrs Mackenzie, 84, who has campaigned for criminal charges to be brought against Dr Barton and other medics she blames for her mother’s death, described Hampshire police as ‘shambolic’.
For nearly two decades she fought for justice for her mother but admitted being shocked by the inquiry report. ‘Now I want people in the dock. In all these years… this is the first time we’ve even got close to the truth,’ she said.
Mrs Mackenzie accused Dr Barton, who has always denied wrongdoing, of being ‘worse than Harold Shipman’, the GP who murdered more than 250 patients in Manchester, and claimed other medics should also ‘face the criminal court’.
Gillian Hamblin, a former ward sister, is accused of siding with Dr Barton and describing whistleblowers as ‘troublemakers’.
A note of a meeting in 2002, during which efforts by several nurses to raise concerns about prescribing practices in 1991 was discussed, says some colleagues found Sister Hamblin ‘ difficult to approach, always sided with Dr Barton’.
The memo adds: ‘Gill Hamblin would speak to them but made Sylvia Giffin [a nurse] feel she was a trouble maker.’
A letter written in 1992 by local Royal College of Nursing representative Keith Murray also said staff ‘ didn’t want to upset Gill Hamblin or Dr Barton’ because they were ‘concerned they would be sacked or moved’.
Mrs Hamblin did not respond to a request for comment.