Care home staff put body in bed to make it look like resident died in his sleep
TWO women who staged a cover-up at a care home after an 86-year-old was found dead in his freezing bedroom walked free from court yesterday.
Ronald Dean was discovered naked and in a praying position with his window wide open hours before he was due to give his daughter away.
Lynda Johnson, who ran the home, and her deputy Deborah Scrivens were arrested when it emerged that Mr Dean’s body had been put back into his bed.
Carers should have checked on the confused pensioner every two hours but owing to staff shortages an inexperienced worker failed to look in on him.
Fearing an investigation by police, Johnson ordered 44-year- old Scrivens and her colleagues to place him back in his bed and make it appear he had died peacefully in his sleep.
That day Mr Dean – a former milkman who suffered from Alzheimer’s – had been due to walk his daughter Alison Smith down the aisle. Scrivens even suggested to the bride that her father’s body be dressed up in his morning suit.
The truth emerged after a care assistant who witnessed the events at the Lever Edge Care Home in Bolton told a relative.
Johnson, from Radcliffe, and Scrivens, from Bolton, admitted an offence of obstructing a coroner. Bolton Crown Court heard that their lies had no bearing on his cause of death. Johnson, 64, received a 12-month community order and must perform 120 hours of unpaid work and pay £2,000 costs. Scrivens, 44, was handed a six-month community order and ordered to wear an electronic tag.
Three other staff were cleared of perverting the course of justice at an earlier hearing.
The Daily Mail’s Dignity for the Elderly Campaign has highlighted mistreatment in care homes and the NHS. In a statement, Mr Dean’s daughter said two days before his death in January last year he had been in ‘great spirits’.
She now faces the pain of marking the anniversary of her father’s death on her wedding anniversary.
‘As a family we are all feeling very angry, distraught and let down by people we entrusted to look after Dad,’ she said.
‘We feel the people involved have shown no sympathy or remorse. We trusted the safety of our father to people and expected them to take care of him.
‘Instead they prioritised money over his care and I was lied to on the day of my wedding about the death of my father that can never be taken away from me.’ Nick Fryman QC, prosecuting, said the incident took place six months after Mr Dean had been admitted to the home, which has 80 residents, in August 2015.
A doctor called to the care home was told Mr Dean had died in his sleep and was alone in his bed when staff found him. A post-mortem examination showed he suffered cardio-respiratory failure due to heart disease.
Mr Fryman said: ‘Mr Dean may well have died anyway even had he been properly checked during the night, but the acts of these defendants created a far greater and far more substantial investigation than would otherwise have been the case.’
Johnson, who has retired, admitted directing Scrivens to put Mr Dean back in his bed but said she did it to ‘spare the daughter unnecessary trauma’ on her big day.
Passing sentence, Judge Timothy Stead said the care workers’ actions had increased the family’s distress and had misled other authorities.
‘Angry, distraught and let down’