Pair deny lying to police over brain hospice patient's death

The 31-year-old died in September 2015 at the former Chalkdown House brain injury unit in Dorcan after apparently hanging himself from a bathroom door.

Two former staff members are on trial at Swindon Crown Court for allegedly lying in statements to police about their movements that night. Nurse Samuel Haward and support worker Nthabiseng Bodiba deny perverting the course of justice.

Mr Beswick was on suicide watch, with staff meant to check up on him every 15 minutes. But jurors heard that on the night of September 17 the unit was short staffed.

Agency nurse Petua Nugent checked on him as she conducted her medicine round shortly after beginning her night shift at 9pm.

At that time Mr Beswick was lying on his side and breathing. Ms Nugent returned to the medicines room to collect the man’s medication.

At around 9.40pm she claimed she saw a stunned-looking Haward in the corridor. He was late for his shift.

Haward outside Swindon Crown Court

“I asked him, ‘what’s the problem, what’s the matter’,” she told jurors. “He continued to appear to be distressed. I asked him again: ‘What is it? What’s the problem?’ Then he said a patient has died.”

At first she thought he meant a patient who had earlier been taken to hospital by two other staff members. It was only when Haward picked up the phone and called the police she realised it was Mr Beswick.

In the 999 call, which was played to the jury, Haward, Ms Nugent and Bodiba spoke to the operator. Ms Nugent told the emergency worker no attempt had been made to resuscitate Mr Beswick. A short while later he asked Bodiba why nothing had been done and was told: “They’re doing it now.”

In statements made to the police, the trio claimed that their patient’s body had been found by Bodiba, who had raised the alarm. Haward had performed CPR before handing over to Ms Nugent and then calling the ambulance.

Opening the case yesterday prosecutor Nicholas Tucker said that was a lie. Ms Nugent’s statement had initially tallied with that account, but three days after being interviewed by the police in early 2016 changed her story.

Bodiba outside Swindon Crown Court

She said Bodiba, Haward and she had spoken on the night of Mr Beswick’s death about keeping to the same story. Haward had told her: “You relieved me from the CPR.” Bodiba allegedly told her: “I fetched you.” In the weeks after incident, she claimed she was warned of the importance of sticking to the story or face getting herself into trouble.

Ms Nugent told jurors: “It was not right. It was stupid. I did not think through it properly. I don’t know – it was pressure. It was a terrible thing I should not have done.”

Interviewed by police, Bodiba and Haward either maintained their original account or answered no comment to detectives’ questions.

Mr Tucker said both would have known the importance of telling the truth to the police. He asked: “The question is why the defendants would have lied. Only they can say for sure but on behalf of the prosecution I suggest they did so in order to cover up the fact that neither of them had – as they should have – promptly administered CPR to Daniel when they should have done.

“It is not the prosecution’s case that had they promptly administered CPR then Daniel would have survived. There is no evidence to suggest that.”

The jury heard Ms Nugent pleaded guilty in 2017 to perverting the course of justice. Mr Tucker asked: “Why would she then go on to plead guilty herself to perverting the course of justice if the accounts that all three of them gave in their initial witness statements were true?”

Bodiba, 38, of Tyndale Gardens, Park North, and Haward, 46, of Tavistock Road, Reading, deny perverting the course of justice. The trial continues.

Chalkdown House closed in 2017.