The UK government has apologised to relatives of hospital patients who died as a result of being given life-shortening opioid drugs without medical justification and said criminal charges could follow. An independent inquiry, published on Wednesday, found that 456 patients died and possibly 200 more had their lives shortened because of the routine practice at Gosport War Memorial hospital.
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/jun/20/hunt-and-may-apologise-for-gosport-hospital-deaths
When I was serving on the Isle of Wight, there were three investigations of which I was the investigating officer and the common denominator in all the cases being covered up or cut short was the then DI Stewart who became a DCI within PSD.
I believe that the Bishop's quote would adequately reflect the conduct of some of the same officers involved in covering up
One of these matters concerned a nurse who I suspected may be involved in the deaths and appropriating the property of elderly persons.
The other two cases were police corruption concerning paedophilia and racially aggravated asaults.
When Marguerite Sassen-Povel was 91 years old, she announced that she was leaving her family and going to live with her male nurse. Three months later she made him the main beneficiary of her will. 42 year old Raymond Kent had promised the wealthy widow that he would look after her for the rest of her life and that he would make her walk again. But Mrs Sassen-Povel died just seven months after changing her will and Mr Kent inherited most of her £1.6 million estate.
Mr Stewart is now a Cllr and the leader of the Isle of Wight Council in addition to being the chair of the Police and Crime Panel.
I raised concerns with the Chief Constable including via my MP.
The following is an extract of my letter:
Nurse suspected of being involved in the deaths of elderly patients
I was the investigating officer in this case which initially began with a forged prescription being left at a chemist.
As the investigation progressed I identified that a male nurse had stolen pads of prescriptions from GPs surgeries which had not been reported as being stolen.
Further investigations identified that the suspect was a district nurse who cared for elderly persons in their own homes and that he had unethically moved one of the elderly female patients into his own home.
The nurse later moved the elderly patient into a private nursing home where she died within 24 hours. The will of the deceased patient had been changed to benefit the nurse for 1.6 million pounds and excluded the family.
I identified other possible victims having retrieved prescriptions from Newcastle where prescriptions are eventually stored and that other elderly persons may have provided gifts to the nurse including a horse and stables.
DI Stewart became involved and attempted to prevent the investigation progressing any further and this is believed to be as a result of instructions from the Deputy Chief Constable.
The reason behind this appears to be that at the same time there was public criticism regarding a number of deaths at the Gosport memorial hospital and did not wish further publicity which may result in further resources having to be deployed to deal with a ‘Harold Shipman’ style case.
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