NHS ward manager sentenced and trust fined more than £500,000 over death of patient

An NHS ward manager has been sentenced for health and safety failings and a trust fined more than £500,000 after a young woman died in a secure mental health hospital.

Warning: This article contains references to suicide.

Alice Figueiredo was 22 years old when she took her own life at London's Goodmayes Hospital in July 2015.

Earlier this year, a jury found the North East London NHS Foundation Trust (NELFT) and ward manager Benjamin Aninakwa did not do enough to prevent Figueiredo from taking her own life.

The decisions were reached after the joint-longest jury deliberation in English legal history.

On Tuesday, the trust was fined £565,000 over the health and safety breach - plus £200,000 costs.

Aninakwa, 54, of Grays in Essex, was sentenced to six months in prison, suspended for 12 months, plus 300 hours of unpaid work by Judge Richard Marks KC.

The judge described former head girl Alice as a "beautiful vibrant young woman" who was "hugely talented" and had an "extremely" attractive personality.

He said: "Her death at such a young age in the circumstances in which it occurred is a terrible tragedy."

Earlier, Alice's mother and former hospital chaplain Jane Figueiredo said they had been treated with "dismissive contempt, belittling and playing down" their "well-founded" concerns in 2015.

In a victim impact statement, she told the court: "Such attitudes go against everything patient care stands for in our NHS."

She added that her daughter was not known for fabricating stories about staff neglect or forming "arbitrary dislikes" towards them.

Ms Figueiredo described Alice as a "uniquely beautiful, brave, affectionate, generous, kind, colourful, creative and luminous spirit".

She said: "The impact of Alice's untimely, preventable death on every aspect of my life and our life as a family has been immeasurable."

Ms Figueiredo told of how she worked as a hospital chaplain for NELFT but was unable to return to the job she "loved" due to the "catastrophic way they failed Alice".

She added: "Our pain and suffering were also magnified in countless ways by the trust's course of conduct after Alice died and the disingenuous ways they behaved towards us."

Alice was first admitted to the Hepworth Ward in May 2012 with a diagnosis including non-specific eating disorder and bipolar affective disorder.

During her time on the acute psychiatric ward, the trust failed to remove plastic items from the communal toilets or keep them locked.

She had used plastic from the toilets to self-harm on at least 10 previous occasions.

However, the court heard of eight more incidents involving similar materials before Ms Figueiredo took her own life.

Judge Marks said: "I am in no doubt that there was a complete failure to adequately assess and manage the risk that this posed."

Keeping the communal area temporarily locked while Alice was on the ward would not have posed a problem beyond one of "inconvenience", the judge added.

The suicide attempts were recorded in ward notes and other hospital records.

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Aninakwa, who was subject to a performance improvement plan, had failed to remove plastic that could be used for self-harm and failed to ensure incidents of self-harm were recorded, considered and addressed.

Judge Marks said Aninakwa also failed to address "major concerns" of Alice's mother which should have "rung major alarm bells".

He told the defendant: "You knew that she was suicidal - she was the only patient on the ward that was. Your negligent breach of duty went on for weeks."

Aninakwa and the trust denied wrongdoing but declined to give evidence.

The investigation into Alice's death began in 2016, but charges were not brought until September 2023.

NELFT was cleared of corporate manslaughter, and Aninakwa was found not guilty of manslaughter by gross negligence.

The first corporate manslaughter trial against an NHS trust collapsed in 2016 after a judge ruled there was no case to answer.

Judge Marks took into account the 10-year delay in the case in his decision to suspend Aninakwa's jail sentence.

Anyone feeling emotionally distressed or suicidal can call Samaritans for help on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org in the UK. In the US, call the Samaritans branch in your area or 1 (800) 273-TALK.

(c) Sky News 2025: NHS ward manager sentenced and trust fined more than £500,000 over death of patient