BREAKING: NHS trust and manager to be sentenced over death of 22-year-old in secure mental health unit 🚨
An NHS trust and a ward manager will be sentenced next week — more than ten years after the death of 22-year-old Alice Figueiredo, who took her own life at Goodmayes Hospital in east London.A jury earlier this year found that North East London NHS Foundation Trust and ward manager Benjamin Aninakwa failed in their duty to protect Alice, concluding they did not do enough to prevent her death. The verdict came after what became one of the joint-longest jury deliberations in English legal history.Alice died in July 2015, while under the care of the secure mental health unit.
Her parents, Jane and Max Figueiredo, told Sky News that the trial retraumatised them, exposing the “systemic failures” that led to her death.Jane said: “It’s very distressing, because you know she was failed at every point along the way. It adds trauma on top of the wound of losing your child.”Her stepfather Max added: “The fact we have repeated deaths of very young people in secure mental health units shocks me to the core. How can society see this as something that just happens?”
The family revealed that Alice had once told them: “The only way I’m going to leave this ward is in a body bag.”In a statement, the trust apologised, saying it was “deeply sorry for Alice’s death” and that it had since made “significant improvements” to improve safety and staff support.
The case has renewed calls for greater accountability and reform across the UK’s mental health system.
