This vile abuse of trust

- 07 February 2005;Used with the kind permission of theDaily Mail

Suffering dementia and at her most vulnerable, Daphne was placed by her family in a NHS hospital. What they say happened to her there - beaten, robbed, raped - is almost beyond belief There are two images of his wife that Colin Griggs will never forget. The first is as a young bride smiling shyly on their wedding day almost 43 years ago. The second is captured in a harrowing photograph, taken by a police scenes-of-crime officer, to record a black eye, knuckle marks on her cheek, a lump her forehead and bruises on her arms, inner thighs, buttocks„breasts and down her back. It would be easy to assume that Daphne, a 69-year-old grand-mother, had been the victim of a callous mugger or burglar. But the truth is far more shocking. Daphne Griggs received these appalling injuries and, it is alleged, much worse — at the hands of those charged with her care. This photograph of her battered face was taken by Kent Police just two days after she left an NHS hospital ward for patients with dementia. Daphne has Alzheimer’s and is looked after by her husband, Colin, and daughter, Amanda, at home. But her family was persuaded to allow her to spend four weeks in the local hospital because she could not sleep. But when she came out, the family was horrified: Daphne had lost two stone (a quarter of her body weight), was filthy because she had not been bathed for a month and had `lost' two valuable rings. Twenty-four hours later, she was finally coaxed into undressing for a bath and her husband discovered she was covered in bruises and Colin Griggs says: `When Daphne arrived home she was filthy. Her legs were all grimy. We didn't want to bathe her because she was already so agitated and upset, but on the Saturday morning we were going to give her a lovely bath and do her hair — she was very particular about her hair. When we took her clothes off we saw all the bruises on her body. It really upset us. There were bruises down her back, on her breasts, on the inside of her thighs, on her arms. The bruises were all ages and we could not believe what we were seeing. We agonised over what on earth we should do, until I rang our doctor on Sunday and asked her to visit.' A woman doctor saw Daphne the next morning. She says: "It was appalling. There were bruises all over her, in places they should not have been. I told Colin I was calling the police straightaway because the marks were non-accidental and Daphne had obviously been abused.’ Kent Police were already investigating the alleged theft of Daphne’s rings from her fingers while on the ward, after being alerted by her family, and began a fresh inquiry into the allegations of abuse. But there soon emerged an even more horrific accusation to deal with. Daphne told her husband and a community nurse that she had been raped and forced to commit a sexual act in the toilets of the all-female ward. A diary of her almost daily disclosures, kept by her husband Colin, makes heartbreaking reading. `Friday September 24, 2004: After breakfast, Daphne asked to go to the toilet on five or six occasions in quick succession. On each visit she asked me not to hit her.' 'A community nurse managed to get Daphne to describe what had happened to her. It was obvious to all concerned that Daphne had been sexually abused as well as beaten. The rest of the day was rather uncomfortable for all concerned. Amanda was devastated at the revelation and our granddaughter was very upset. We all felt rather numb.' Later, according to the diary, Daphne told her husband: `He would stand in front of me and push it into my mouth, it made me feel sick. I was crying but could not call out, I tried to push him away. I was frightened and I wanted to come home.' The police Special Investigation Unit interviewed all those involved in Daphne's care and sent a file, naming a suspect, to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS). But, tragically, because Daphne is the only witness and is not considered competent to give evidence in a criminal court, no charges can be brought. The family is devastated by the decision but is determined to continue to seek justice for Daphne. They are scathing about the attitude of East Kent NHS Trust, which delayed answering the family’s questions for months. And they blame the hospital management and the sinister culture that was allowed to take root in the ward for what happened to a very vulnerable woman. It has taken ten months for the Griggs family to finally receive an apology from the chief executive of the Trust, Sue Hunt, for a number of areas where we failed to provide the care that Mrs Griggs and her family had a right to expect. It is not enough. Colin, 65, is suing the Trust for medical negligence in a final bid to get to the truth. Sitting in the conservatory of their large detached house set in extensive grounds near Folkestone which is shared by three generations of the family, he speaks deliberately, trying to keep his anger and distress at bay. One suspects he is not a man given to great displays of emotion, but his love for Daphne is undisguised. "We have been married for almost 43 years. Daphne and I worked together running a garden centre and a landscaping business for 30 odd years and we have never had an argument. Daphne was the life and soul of any party from the moment I met her. She was so full of life, so beautiful. She has had dementia for four and a half years, brought on, we think, by a succession of tragedies. Ten years ago I was in a serious car crash and she was the first on the scene. Shortly afterwards, her sister developed a brain tumour and died and then Daphne nursed her mother until she died. I thought she was becoming confused because everything was getting on top of her and so I made her stay at home to rest. At that stage Daphne was dressing herself and making food for herself and, physically, she hadn't changed at all. She just started to forget things. The doctors thought she was suffering from deep depression and they prescribed anti-depressants. When it got worse and was diagnosed, I wanted to be at home with her so I sold the garden centre and my daughter and son-in-law sold their home and we all moved in together, to share the care.' He sighs and adds: `The illness was so unfair. Our plan was to work until we were financially secure and when we retired, we were going travelling. Some people said we did nothing but work, but we enjoyed it. We had each other and we didn't bother with holidays. That was for later. Daphne has family in New Zealand and we were going to go to Australia and maybe Canada. But of course, it was obvious that we couldn't do any of those things. I told Daphne we would postpone them until she was better. We spend our time together. Daphne loves to sit in the garden and to go on walks. Sometimes we just drive up to the top of the hill and look at the view. Right up until April last year our family and some friends would meet up for a meal every month and Daphne came too. But we stopped going when she developed problems with her eating and people started to look at her and nudge each other if she dropped food. She would have been mortified if she had known and I wanted to protect her from that, protect her dignity.' It is often a thankless task, involving 24-hour supervision and many, broken nights. `She doesn't even know who I am sometimes', Colin says helplessly. 'Daphne went into hospital because she would go for five nights without sleep. Everything we did was for Daphne's, good not for ours. That is, why we agreed to the hospitalisation. We got a call on August 17 to say a place had become free. Amanda took her mother to the hospital, a Victorian building, and left her in the care of the ward, which had 18 female patients. We were told not to visit for a few days to allow Daphne to settle,’ Colin says. "The first time we went to see her I felt uneasy. We arrived to see two male nurses frog-marching two different patients the length of the ward because they were being unco-operative. And another nurse was tapping a patient on the back of the head with a newspaper. The patient repeatedly called out to stop it and was becoming increasingly aggravated, but he continued to tap her until she tried to strike out and he caught her arm and restrained her.’ Colin was particularly concerned about the number of male agency nurses and health care assistants on the all female ward. On one occasion, he found three male members of staff watching a sex programme on the ward’s TV. He says: "They acted like school boys. Although it was suggested by the staff nurse on duty that the programme was inappropriate viewing they continued watching it, making various unsavoury comments on the contents of the programme. I thought it very strange that there were all these male nurses looking after female patients, particularly when the patients are so vulnerable. The management later said there were only two male nurses on the ward, but they didn’t know the see of the agency staff, who changed from day to day.’ The chaotic staffing arrangements on the ward were symptomatic of the whole regime. An independent inquiry by the Healthcare Commission has concluded that the standard of care given to Daphne Griggs was "unacceptable’ and there were "serious concerns’ about the culture on the ward. The report also condemns "a very serious failure of management at all levels of the organisation, including executive and board level, to recognise and address obvious deficiencies.’ The inquiry panel decided that, in the absence of proper records, "it has to be assumed that Mrs Griggs may not have been bathed during her stay and that her apparent weight loss was as a result of her not eating properly and insufficient attention by ward staff to ensure she received an adequate diet.’ But on the specific allegations of abuse, the inquiry panel accepted the hospital’s claim that the bruising to Daphne’s face was probably caused by a fall and blamed the marks on her arms on "inappropriate techniques for moving and handling.’ There was no explanation for the many other bruises. Colin says: "I got a call on August 31 from the staff nurse in charge saying that we should expect Daphne to look quite awful when we visited her as she had had a fall. She said that we could expect to see bruises and black eyes. It was very upsetting to see Daphne that evening. She had a large bruise on her forehead, two black eyes and a cut on the bridge of her nose.’ The entry in the nursing notes read : "Found on dormitory floor lying on back at 22.30. Appears to have possibly fallen out of bed. No apparent injury on inspection and returned to bed. Woke at 05.00 to use toilet. Noted to have bruising to forehead, right eye and nose.’ Colin was sceptical about the explanation but it was only when Daphne came home that she described being hit in the face by someone with a cup or tumbler. Later that same week Daphne’s daughter, Amanda, discovered that her mother’s diamond rings were missing. Daphne has arthritis and the family’s attempts to remove her eternity ring, wedding ring and engagement ring when she arrived on the ward were unsuccessful. However, on September 4, two of the three rings were missing. Colin says: "Her eternity and engaged rings had both been removed.’ "Her wedding band, which she wore between the other two rings was still there and the police said that the wedding ring could not be removed over her knuckles. The hospital said she must have taken them off herself and left them somewhere, I believed they were stolen - cut off her finger.’ A week later, Daphne had another black eye with knuckle marks at the side of her left eye. Staff tried to tell Colin that it was the old black eye but he claims it was in a different position and "visibly newer’. It was at that point that Colin decided to remove his wife from the ward. As he left on September 17, a male member of staff stopped them. Colin recalls: "He was coming on duty and he looked Daphne in the eye and said “Remember I love you lots.” "I knew nothing about the sexual abuse at that point but it really made my flesh crawl.’ The male healthcare worker was questioned by the police during their inquiry and released without charge. He is understood not to be working any longer in the NHS. Colin is all too aware that the allegations of sexual abuse are the most difficult to prove. The inquiry panel was unable to say whether the attacks took place, but it concludes that "the alleged incidents in the toilet area could have occurred without observations by staff.’ Colin says: "If Daphne had made up the accusation that she had been raped, she would not be able to recall it so clearly. Daphne can’t remember what she had for dinner yesterday. I have been told by a psychologist that it is not conceivable that she could have made this up because the details are so consistent and contemporary. The CPS says it can’t proceed with the prosecution because Daphne cannot give evidence, but I have no doubt that she was sexually assaulted and abused and robbed of her rings. She still talks about the assaults on a daily basis. We try to convince her those people can’t get to her, and she is safe, but she forgets our re-assurances in minutes. In a way, I wish she could forget what happened to her. It seems so cruel that the one thing she can recall is something which causes her suffering. She now doesn’t like meeting strangers, particularly men, and she is petrified of going into a toilet.’ It clearly devastates Colin Griggs to know that his beloved wife is frightened. He says: "The last time Daphne was frightened like this was when she was a child during the war. She has always had her dad or myself to protect her until these animals were allowed to be around her. They were just thugs. The whole family feels revulsion, disgust and hurt that someone could do such a thing to someone so vulnerable.’ A spokesperson for East Kent NHS and Social Care Partnership Trust said: "We are extremely sorry for the distress that Mr Griggs is experiencing. There was rigorous, objective investigation and a full enquiry into the allegations about Mrs Griggs’s care and treatment, however, now that the matters is in the hands of Mr Griggs’s solicitor, we are unable to make any further comment.’ The family’s solicitor, Sarah Harman, who has issued a letter of claim against the Trust, said: "I think this is more than appalling. It is very frightening that it is so easy for perpetrators, who are abusing vulnerable people, to get access to them without proper procedures and proper structures.' The civil case will be another burden for Colin Griggs and his family, but he is adamant that he must continue. "We as a family have never set out to benefit financially from this in any way whatsoever. We just wanted some honest answers and to be treated with a little bit of respect. We have been treated with no respect, we have been mucked about and left waiting in the hope that we would just go away. We have never had the proper answers, only obstruction and I think that was what kept me going. This is for Daphne because she is due answers and respect. We have a duty to find out what really happened to her. I can’t alter what has happened to Daphne. As much as I would give everything I have to alter it, I can't. But if I can stop it happening to any other person, I will.’