'He was failed': War hero starved to death under care of Essex mental health services, family says

Roland Guy first tried to fight for his country when he was just 15 years old.

World War Two had broken out, and the athletic boy from the east end of London wanted to do his bit. He put his name down for the RAF, but his father didn't let him go.

On his 17th birthday though, when he was old enough, Roland's dad could no longer object, so he signed up as a Royal Marine.

Quickly, Roland - known as Ron to his family - was singled out to become a commando, joining an intelligence unit that was under the command of Ian Fleming, the man who would go on to pen the famous James Bond novels.

Under his charge, he risked his life for Britain’s freedom, including during the D-Day operation in June 1944.

Ron's daughter, Margot Binns, told ITV News: “Their remit was to go behind enemy lines, be like ghosts on the battlefield, if you like, unseen, unheard, and gather intelligence.”

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But his time in the forces had a severe impact on her father's mental health, she said, and in the final years of his life, it only deteriorated.

When he finally asked for help from Essex mental health services, her father was failed, Margot said.

What is the Lampard mental health inquiry?

Ron died in 2006, aged 80 from a heart attack, in an NHS hospital. He was severely malnourished and dehydrated.

“The last time he was sectioned in Runwell Hospital, his physical state became so bad that they sent him to Southend General Hospital, and they were aghast at the state he was in," Margot said.

Her father had bed sores, got sepsis and had "basically starved and dehydrated himself to death", she added.

“My dad gave completely and utterly, selflessly. He gave because he wanted to give to his country. He was never thinking of a reward at the end of it, and he never asked for anything.

"He worked hard all of his life. He never took anything from the state at all. And the one time he asked for help from the state, I think he was failed terribly.”

His death is now one of more than 2,000 inpatient deaths being investigated by The Lampard Inquiry, a public inquiry into failings of the Essex mental health care system over the past 20 years.

Chair Baroness Lampard began overseeing hearings into alleged failing in September.

During those first three weeks, the inquiry heard of alleged sexual abuse on mental health units, as well as patients, at serious risk of suicide, taking their own lives whilst being treated at facilities.

The inquiry will begin again next week, on November 25.

Margot said: “When I listen to some of the testimonies from the Lampard Inquiry, it's very evident from every single one that a lot of the families are beside themselves with worry for the person they love.

“And you put all your faith in these experts that are there to help and you breathe a sigh of relief that they're in a place of safety. And it's very obvious that my dad was not in a place of safety.

One of six children, Margot, who is now 67, said her father had struggled with his mental health for most of his life. She remembers his low moods as a child and how he would stay in bed and eat little - sometimes for up to a week.

But her mother, also called Margot, would coax him out of it and their happy family life would return to normal.

Theirs was an unlikely, but enduring love story.

After being recruited into Fleming’s secret 30th Assault Unit - the intelligence unit that would inspire his spy books - Ron took part in raids designed to gather information on and destroy German specialist rockets that were causing devastating damage to the Allies.

It was following one of these missions, in Brittany, that he met his wife, who was in the French Resistance.

They knew each other for two weeks before he was sent to Germany. The two began a courtship through pen and paper, which resulted in their wedding in 1947.

But, before the boy from Dagenham could begin his life with his wife, he was stationed in Hong Kong guarding Japanese prisoners.

He became friendly with them, some teaching him Jiu Jitsu in their cells, before he had to march them to the gallows.

It was this experience that Margot and her family believe did the lasting damage to his mental health, saying he felt the deep injustice of foot soldiers being sent to their death, while their commanders were only handed house arrest.

She said: “And even though I can't speak for my dad, he would be very open, I think, with my mum.

"She was the only person he would confide in. And so it's only really through my mum that I can tell you some of how he felt in his heart. And she would often say that she felt that the real damage was done more post war in Hong Kong.”

In 1994, Ron went to a GP who prescribed him antidepressants without proper examination or counseling, according to this family. This, they believe, was the catalyst for his downward spiral.

“What we noticed is he very quickly then went into this enormous high. So he went from being depressed to incredibly high. It was something we had never seen," she said.

Ron then attempted suicide, which he had never done before, according to his daughter. It was after this attempt when he ended up with Essex mental health services.”

Ron was then sectioned for the first time at Runwell Hospital in Wickford. But, it wouldn’t be the last.

His suffering followed an extreme pattern for the next 12 years, each manic episode ending up with him being sectioned and then released again into the community without any support.

Margot said she and her family repeatedly asked the services for help, but they would be "uninterested" until he reached rock bottom and was suicidal.

She said: “I mean, they would put him on different antidepressants, they would put him on lithium. Nothing seemed to stop this cycle.

"I felt that the treatment he was given put him on a track of behaviour that would never have happened had they not intervened with inappropriate treatment.

“We didn't recognise him as the dad we knew and it's really difficult to come to terms with that.”

Ron died in May 2006 from a heart attack. He was severely malnourished and dehydrated.

Margot and her family believe he would not have died this way if he had been given the care he deserved.

And despite his death being nearly 20 years ago, she said their experience is still relevant to The Lampard Inquiry.

“Care and safety are the two number one things for me. I really welcome The Lampard Inquiry to look into this because from the testimonies I’ve heard, it would sound like things have got even worse since my dad died.”

Paul Scott, CEO of Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust (EPUT), said: "My thoughts remain with Roland’s family. I am sorry the care he received was not of the standard it should have been and offer my deepest condolences for their loss.

"Since Roland’s sad death in 2006, a huge amount of work has taken place across the health and care system to transform mental health services so that patients get the right care to meet their individual needs - this includes the launch of Op COURAGE, a specialist mental health service to support armed forces veterans and their families."

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