Fake name care worker fled UK after eating disorder teen died under his watch

A care worker employed under a false name fled the UK after failing to properly watch over a teenage girl at a children’s mental health hospital, an inquest has heard.

Ruth Szymankiewicz died at John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford on February 14, 2022, while she was a patient at Huntercombe Hospital - also known as Taplow Manor - in Berkshire.

Theinquest was told the 14-year-old suffered from an eating disorder and had been placed under strict one-to-one supervision following a self-harming incident 10 days before her death, a jury inquest held at Buckinghamshire Coroner’s Court heard on Monday.

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But on February 12 2022, the member of staff responsible for watching her - a man then known as Ebo Acheampong - failed to maintain the constant supervision plan, the court was told.

It later emerged Mr Acheampong had been using false identity documents and was hired by the hospital under a false name, coroner Ian Wade KC told the court.

“The evidence showed he had been employed through an agency (Platinum), who checked his identity documents, and they even trained him by putting him through a day-and-a-half course,” Mr Wade told jurors.

It appears that these particular processes were the norm and were sufficient to enable a hospital to employ this person.

“But on February 12, he did not keep Ruth under a constant watch,” Mr Wade added. Some time around 8pm in the evening, this man ended his shift without knowing where she was and without making sure that he handed her over to another member of staff to continue the one-to-one care regime.

“He simply left.”

Acheampong never returned to work at Huntercombe Hospital, jurors were told. "It seems that he learned what happened that evening,” Mr Wade said.

Thames Valley Police launched an investigation and found Acheampong had gone to Heathrow airport and got on a plane to Ghana “never to be seen again”, the coroner said. "You will not hear from that man, and he let Ruth down,” Mr Wade told jurors.

Ms Szymankiewicz was left unsupervised for a period of 15 minutes during which she was able to asphyxiate herself, the coroner said.

A post-mortem examination carried out by the Home Office later determined the preliminary cause of death to be “hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy” - a type of brain damage due to lack of oxygen.

The court further heard Huntercombe Hospital had been inspected twice by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) prior to the incident.

“The CQC had not reported favourably on Huntercombe,” the coroner told the inquest. Active Care Group, which owned Huntercombe at the time of Ruth’s death, has since closed the facility.