An NHS trust will become the first ever to be tried for the corporate manslaughter of a mental health patient after being charged over the death of a 22-year-old woman.
Alice Figueiredo died at Goodmayes hospital, run by North East London NHS Foundation Trust (NELFT), in July 2015.
Last year the Crown Prosecution Service announced it was charging NELFT with corporate manslaughter as well as a health and safety breach.
The ward manager at the time, Benjamin Aninakwa, will also stand trial for manslaughter by gross negligence and health and safety breaches for actions related to her death.
The trial opens on 29 October and is expected to last for nine weeks.
NEFLT will be the second ever NHS trust to be charged with corporate manslaughter after Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells Trust was charged following the death of a woman who underwent an emergency Caesarean in 2015.
However, it is the first mental health trust to be charged over the death of a patient in a psychiatric unit.
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Although this is the first time a trust is facing corporate manslaughter charges over the death of a mental health patient there have been several successful prosecutions brought by regulators the Care Quality Commission and Health and Safety Executive over mental health patient deaths.
These include the Priory Group, which was fined £650,000 in March after admitting to criminal failures for exposing 23-year-old patient Matthew Caseby to serious risk of harm.
The Priory Group was also fined £300,000 by the HSE over the death of 14-year-old Amy El-Keria in 2019.
Caseby died a self-inflicted death after absconding from the Woodbourne Priory hospital in Birmingham in 2020 where he was an NHS inpatient.
Southern Health NHS Trust was fined £2million after pleading guilty to breaching health and safety laws following the deaths of Connor Sparrowhawk and Teresa Colvin in 2013 and 2012.
In 2021, North Essex Partnership Trust was prosecuted by HSE and fined £1.5m for safety failings over the deaths of 11 patients. Essex Police were carrying out a separate criminal probe into deaths at the trust however dropped this in 2019.
The hospital now faces a public inquiry, which is being led by Baroness Kate Lampard.
There are several active criminal investigations currently taking place into deaths at other NHS trusts, with police looking into the death of a 14-year-old girl at private children’s mental health hospital Taplow Manor, run by Active Care Group.
Nottinghamshire Police are currently carrying out a criminal investigation into maternity cases after baby deaths at Nottingham University Hospitals Foundation Trust.
This story was updated at 15:41 to reflect the correct amount of fines paid by Southern Health NHS Trust.
