A healthcare professional has been arrested on suspicion of murder, rape and sexual assault as part of a police investigations into the stroke unit at an NHS hopsital in Blackpool.
A 75 year old grandmother who was subjected to a violent sexual assault while in hospital after suffering a stroke, was unlawfully killed, a coroner has concluded.
Valerie Kneale from Poulton-le-Fylde in Lancashire, spent four days at Blackpool Victoria Hospital before her death on 16 November 2018. She had been expected to make a full recovery.
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BBC reports: The pathologist who carried out Mrs Kneale’s post-mortem examination said her injuries were so unusual they were akin to those suffered in a road traffic accident, and concerns should have been promptly raised.
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Blackpool coroner’s court heard so much blood had come from Valerie Kneale’s body shortly after her death that it had soaked the mattress and was unlike anything staff members had seen before.
The court was told that while Mrs Kneale had been moved to the stroke ward after a scan revealed bleeding in her brain, she was lucid and “chatty” when her family left her just before midnight.
Her relatives were called back to the hospital the next morning after “a marked deterioration” in her condition and it was agreed that Mrs Kneale would be placed on end-of-life care.
The court heard it was initially thought that the stroke had been responsible for her worsening condition.
Mrs Kneale’s family stayed at her bedside until she died on 16 November.
Lancashire Police only decided to examine her death after they were called in later that month to investigate allegations of mistreatment and neglect on the ward.
A post-mortem examination, carried out 18 days after her death, concluded Mrs Kneale died not because of her stroke but due to a “forcible sexual assault” inflicted while she was a patient at the hospital.
Consultant forensic pathologist Dr Alison Armour told the hearing at Blackpool Town Hall she did not regard the stroke as a contributory factor to Mrs Kneale’s death.
She said she thought the 75-year-old “would have survived for some time” but for the “serious injury” that had been inflicted during the sexual assault.
The injuries were suffered at least two days before Mrs Kneale died, Dr Armour said, and the “window of opportunity” for the attack included the overnight shift of 12-13 November – the only time Mrs Kneale was not surrounded by family
