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45p FRIDAY JULY 29 2011 VOICE OF THE WESTCOUNTRY SINCE 1860 CORNWALL

Opinion 10 UK and World news 14 Weather 17 TV and radio 50 Puzzles 52 Business 54 Family announcements 57 Classified advertisements 59 Sport 64

Fa i l i n g sby NHSended inkilling

BY ELEANOR GASKARTH

A policewoman who appearedon a gruelling TV game showwhile on sick leave is suing theDevon and Cornwall forceafter she lost her job.

Fellow officers complainedto superiors after seeing PCLesley Hart, from NewtonAbbot, competing on To t a lWi p e o u t on BBC One.

The 51-year-old had beensigned off work with stresswhen she took part in the showlast year, in which contestantstackle an extreme and wateryobstacle course.

An internal investigation bythe force cleared her of mis-conduct but she was medicallyretired at the end of last yearbecause she was deemed unfitto return to work.

Ms Hart is now suing herformer employer and is un-derstood to be claiming theforce did not provide enoughsupport to help her remain inwo rk .

The former officer took sickleave in late 2009 due to stress,which she attributed to theemotionally demandingnature of her work, excessivecaseload, and lack of supportfrom senior officers.

She had been moved to thefo rc e ’s domestic violence unitafter returning from anothersick leave because of ashoulder injury, believed to beattributed to wearing heavybody armour.

While on sick leave last yearshe signed up to take part inTotal Wipeout without seekingpermission from her senior of-ficers. She was flown to Ar-gentina for the show, hosted byRichard Hammond, but waseliminated in the early stages.

Colleagues are understoodto have been aggrieved whenthey saw her attempting thedemanding physical chal

Woman PCin TV gameshow sueso v e r lost job

Attack ‘could have been prevented’

BY JENNA RICHARDS

The hammer attack killing of agrandmother by her mentallyill grandson could have beenprevented, an NHS report hascl a i m e d .

It is the first time in theSouth West a link has beenfound between failures in careof a mental health patient andm a n s l a u g h t e r.

Investigations commis-sioned by the South West Stra-tegic Health Authority intofour killings by mentally illpeople have concluded thatone of the attacks could havebeen prevented and made re-commendations for improve-ments in all four cases.

The investigation found thatthe killing of Phyllis Deane byher paranoid schizophrenicgrandson Russell Deane inJune 2007 was preventable ifthere had been more assertiveaction to assess Deane’smental health. It made 14 re-commendations for improve-ment after raising concernsincluding: documentation andrecord keeping; diagnosis andmedication; risk assessmentand management; use of the Turn to PAGE 4 Turn to PAGE 5

Mental Health Act; clinicalgovernance process and lackof carers assessment for thefamily of the perpetrator.

Dr Helen Smith, co-medicaldirector of Devon PartnershipNHS Trust, last night apolo-gised for the failings. She said:“Each of these four cases isextremely tragic. The trustapologises unreservedly forthe failures in care identified

in this case and we take theconclusion and recommenda-tions set out in the report veryseriously indeed.

“These events occurred sev-eral years ago now, and sincethat time we have been work-ing tirelessly to improve thesystems and processes arounddelivery of safe, high-qualitycare across the trust.”

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Weekend for two atBoardmasters

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‘If [action] had [beentaken] Mrs Deaneneed not have died’

Report author Ian Allured

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Days out

Save £££sMoney-offvouchersPAGE 19

Cider-maker Richard Hunt is looking forward to a vintage apple crop, up to a month earlier than normal. See PAGE 3