Alice Figueiredo death: NHS trust and ward manager sentenced

Following a Met investigation, an NHS trust has been fined over £500,000, and a ward manager given a suspended prison sentence, for health and safety failings in relation to the death of 22-year old Alice Figueiredo at Goodmayes Hospital in 2015.

A judge at the Old Bailey fined the North East London NHS Foundation Trust £565,000, which they must pay in addition to £200,000 in court costs. At the same court on Monday, 9 June, the Trust was found guilty of an offence under section 3 of the Health and Safety at Work Act, by failing to ensure that patients were not exposed to risks to their health or safety.

At the same hearing in June, the ward manager of the hospital, Benjamin Aninakwa, 53 (25.06.1971), of St Francis Way, Grays was also found guilty of an offence under section 7 of the Health and Safety at Work Act, having failed to take reasonable care for the health and safety of others. He has been sentence to six months, suspended for 12 months, and must complete 300 hours of unpaid work.

Alice Figueiredo was being treated on the Hepworth Ward at the hospital after being sectioned under the Mental Health Act in February 2015.

The court heard that the trust and Aninakwa failed in their duty of care to protect Alice from harm across the almost five months she was on the ward, before she took her own life on Tuesday, 7 July, 2015.

Detective Chief Inspector Joanna Yorke, from Specialist Crime North, said: “The judge’s verdict today reflects the severity of the failings at Goodmayes Hospital. I hope that the sentences handed down today will bring some measure of closure to Alice’s family, who have been fighting for justice for their daughter for over a decade.

“This result comes off the back of an extremely complex investigation, spanning a decade.

“While the vast majority of NHS staff do excellent work, the sentence today highlights the fact that hospitals have a duty of care to their patients – and breaches of this will not be ignored.”

Nine months after Alice’s death, following a report by her parents, the Met’s Specialist Crime Command launched an investigation into the Trust and Aninakwa.

To build evidence of the offences committed, officers developed a careful understanding of the ward itself, painstakingly combing through more than 2,600 medical documents, many of them hundreds of pages long, as well as dozens of witness statements from staff, family and friends of Alice. Officers also interviewed Aninakwa and took statements from various members of the trust.

Despite the rarity of a case like this and amid investigative difficulties presented by Covid, officers gathered a range of experts to consult about their experience of being on similar wards. This included nursing staff and psychiatric practitioners, as well as senior colleagues in other NHS trusts and groups including the Care Quality Commission and NHS England.

Their investigation revealed the extent of negligence by the Trust and Aninakwa, who as ward manager, had failed in his responsibility to make sure that Alice was safe.

Although Aninakwa knew that Alice had a history of self-harm – dating back to 2013 when she had previously been admitted, and again in 2015 – officers discovered that he repeatedly failed to report such instances and ensure other staff were aware. This was even though Alice had been, according to Aninakwa himself, his only patient who was actively trying to harm themselves.

In records seen by investigating officers, a mere 13 instances of self-harm were reported, out of a possible 81. Only three of these, out of a possible 19, related to specific items that Alice had used to self-harm on the ward. Even during a scoping exercise by the Trust about the use of possible items, Aninakwa failed to highlight Alice’s history of self-harming behaviour.

As part of a wide range of failings, officers also found that Aninakwa had failed to direct staff to remove specific items from the communal areas of Hepworth Ward. Nor did he ensure that patients were properly observed by staff and that sufficient steps were taken to lock communal areas that were of concern.

Consequently, Alice was able to access one of the communal areas on the ward where she took her own life on Tuesday, 7 July, 2015.

In September 2023, following a complex investigation in partnership with the CPS, the CPS authorised the Met to charge North East London NHS Foundation Trust with corporate manslaughter and a health and safety offence. Benjamin Aninakwa was charged with a health and safety offence and gross negligence manslaughter. They were cleared of corporate manslaughter and gross negligence manslaughter – respectively – at the Old Bailey on Monday, 9 June.