Families condemn decision not to prosecute Devon care home staff over Covid deaths

Relatives of seven elderly residents who died after contracting coronavirus at a nursing home during the pandemic have condemned the decision not to prosecute anyone, an inquest heard.

The families spoke out after hearing that the manager of the Holmesley Care Home in Sidford, Devon, and a nurse had been arrested and interviewed by police following the Covid outbreak, but were not charged.

They were questioned following the deaths of William Wilkinson, 102, Doris Lockett, 92, Roy Gilliam, 96, Jean Hartley, 81, Susan Skinner, 70, Ronald Bampfylde, 92, and Stanislawa Koch, 93, all of whom died in March or April 2021.

The inquest in Exeter has heard allegations that during the pandemic some staff did not wear face masks or PPE, that others carried on working after testing positive for the virus, and that test results were ignored.

A detective told the hearing that the two staff members – manager Joanne Burchell and nurse Christos Provistallis – had been arrested on suspicion of ill-treatment or wilful neglect, but the Crown Prosecution Service decided there was not a realistic prospect of conviction.

It has been alleged that Mr Provistallis had refused to wear a face mask after claiming “Covid was a conspiracy” – but later ended up in a hospital’s intensive care unit after contracting the virus.

Others alleged Mrs Burchell had not sent sick staff home due to shortages and had ignored positive lateral flow tests results.

Wladek Koch, whose mother died, suggested the authorities did not have the “courage” to prosecute and drew comparisons with people receiving fixed penalty notices for breaching the Covid-19 regulations.

“If they had done the honourable thing that would have set a precedent. As it is now, there is a licence for people to do exactly the same again and get away with it,” he said.

"And not even a £100 fine. Does no-one realise how disgusting this is, and just passing on condolences is a gross insult given there have been no sanctions levied against these two people who did so much ill?“

The fact is this could happen again as the police and the CPS don’t consider the evidence adequate to do anything about it and they get off Scot-free while people’s lives were sacrificed.”

Sally Burns, the daughter of Mr Bampfylde, said: “I am absolutely astounded by all of this.

"It is just a litany of processes, investigations and recommendations and this, that and the other that everyone can ignore, and nothing happens at the end of it except people die.

"I don’t at the moment have the words to formulate a question. It’s just staggering, I am not surprised, but to hear it all condensed in just one week is just horrific.”

Alison Shaw, who is the sister of Ms Skinner, said: “Now knowing what happened and hearing it stated and proven, I am actually also quite shocked that potentially there will be no repercussions on the people who I feel were responsible.

"My sister described chaos and staff shouting at each other and just things falling apart. That wasn’t just during the Covid-19 time, but prior to that as well.

"She felt there was something innately wrong in there and she had actually worked at Holmesley some time.

"I think the communication between us all had it been better might have made some difference at some point and I personally feel bad about that.

"I am hoping for some kind of closure but instead I am left feeling that if we are gangling at how much we can achieve for the future.

"These people are gone, it’s very sad, but we would like to think this case makes a difference for the future and some of it is corrected and improved."

Giving evidence, Detective Sergeant Tom Hall said charges of gross negligence manslaughter were quickly ruled out against Mrs Burchell and nurse Christos Provistallis and instead the investigation focused on ill-treatment.

"It was an untested area of law at the time, and we didn’t have any pandemic-related case law that we could refer to,” the officer said.

"We sought specialist advice from within the CPS around whether the threshold was met for prosecution.

"We maintained regular contact with CPS throughout that period. There is case law around wilful neglect and ill-treatment and some of the issues we faced around our ability to take the matter forward related to that case law.”

Alison Longhorn, area coroner for Devon, Plymouth and Torbay, adjourned the inquest and said she would deliver her conclusions next week.