Laurence Tchapong, a 53-year-old agency nurse from Manchester, has been found guilty of wilfully neglecting Amy Barber, a patient in her care who later died. The jury at Liverpool Crown Court took 15 minutes to return its verdict after a week-and-a-half trial.
Amy, 22, died on July 4, 2022, at Arrowe Park Hospital. She had been found unresponsive in her room at Brooklands Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit at Clatterbridge Hospital in Wirral on the evening of June 30, and suffered severe brain injuries.
Amy had been living with emotionally unstable personality disorder and an eating disorder since she was 14. She had a history of self-harming behaviour and had previously been cared for at Springwood Lodge in Leeds.
Checks not carried out
On the night of June 30, Tchapong started her shift at 7.30pm and was given responsibility for level two checks on patients, including Amy. These checks meant observing patients through their bedroom windows if conscious and checking for indicators of self-harm if they were asleep. Amy was supposed to be checked every five minutes.
CCTV footage showed Tchapong passing Amy a towel at 8.15pm before closing the door. At 8.40pm, nurse Victoria Connelly, who was distributing medication, entered Amy's room and found her unresponsive. Ms Connelly raised the alarm and efforts were made to save Amy before she was taken to Arrowe Park Hospital.
At least 10 observation entries signed by Tchapong stated she had seen Amy awake, but CCTV showed those checks did not take place. A further entry at 8.55pm, with a possible question mark, was also signed by Tchapong. The footage showed she was not present at the times recorded in the log.
Lies to her manager
In a debrief with her superior, Gill Judson, Tchapong claimed Amy had asked for an apple at 8.40pm and a towel five minutes later, so she went to get them. She said the next thing she knew was the alarms going off from Amy's unit. When asked about the 8.55pm entry, she became distressed and could not explain it.
When Ms Judson spoke with Tchapong again, she reported the same account, adding that Amy was stood in the bathroom brushing her teeth at 8.50pm. On the 8.55pm entry, she said it looked like an 'A' for awake but was actually a question mark as she was unsure what to put due to staff performing CPR on Amy at the time.
Her defence accepted she did not check on Amy between 8.15pm and the alarm sounding, but asserted this was due to other tasks she had been given. She also raised concerns about the number of patients she had to observe.
'She was amazing'
Amy's mother Sue, 59, from Nantwich, paid tribute to her daughter, saying: "She was amazing, she was bright, kind, funny and crazily clever. She got 11 A*s at GCSE and then she got stuck in the mental health system."
She added: "She was fantastic, I know every mother says that but people would tell me the same thing, she really was. She ran with the Olympic torch in 2012 and was a registered organ donor so after her death she has helped four people. That was her choice that she made at 16 and I don't know if I would have done that."
Amy, who grew up in Cheshire, had a large funeral. Sue said: "She was so funny, she was mature, she was the sensible one in her friend group. She was very independent, she just did her own thing and she was just fabulous. At her funeral, her old head mistress from high school spoke and said that her life was better for knowing Amy. She was so liked by the adults when growing up."
Sue also said: "We were as close as a mother and daughter can be. Amy was my person."
Sentencing due
Tchapong is due to be sentenced on September 1. Sue said: "Amy was poorly but she wasn't checked on for 25 minutes. She was on five minute checks, which doesn't mean five past, 10 past, but it means she needs to be constantly checked on, and, what I didn't know until the trial, was that she walked past Amy's room three times and didn't go in."
She added: "She was doing other things rather than looking after my daughter. I hope she gets a decent punishment. We've had to listen to Amy's last hour over and over again during the trial because she pleaded not guilty."
