Former carer describes disabled woman Debbie Leitch looking 'like a skeleton' before neglect death
A video report from ITV Granada journalist Rob Smith
An inquest into the death of disabled woman Debbie Leitch in Blackpool has heard harrowing details of the conditions in which she spent her final days.
Debbie, 24 who who was born with Down's syndrome, was discovered dead at her family home in Blackpool in August 2019. She weighed under four stone at the time and had been abandoned by her mother to die alone, in pain and in squalid conditions.
Elaine Clarke, 49, was jailed for nine years and seven months after pleading guilty to gross negligence manslaughter after she initially denied the offence.
A five day inquest which started Monday 14 October heard a written statement from a former carer who visited the family home to attend to a different matter.
Scott Worthington, a former carer with Cherish UK, described how he felt that the mother didn't care for her family calling the environment 'very dirty' and how there was 'chaos' in the household.
Mr Worthington also described hearing 'loud crying from a room upstairs' and on the one occasion he saw Ms Leitch in person, he was shocked by her appearance saying she was gaunt and 'looked like a skeleton'.
Coroner, Alan Wilson also heard a written statement from another former carer, Solomon Thornton who again visited the house to deal with another matter. Mr Thornton described finding "bottles filled with urine" in the house and “always stacks of dirty pots in the kitchen".Mr Thornton also recalled hearing loud crying coming from a room upstairs and how the house had a strong smell of faeces.
A post-mortem found Debbie had died from severe emaciation and neglect with an extensive scabies skin infection.
The inquest in Blackpool is expected to conclude on Friday 18 October.