Gosport scandal families fear last chance for justice could disappear

‘At this stage it would be reprehensible to consider the families hearing anything less than a criminal investigation,’ says Bridget Reeves, whose grandmother Elsie Devine died at Gosport

Families have seen successive investigations 'covered up' since their (PA)

Families who lost loved ones at Gosport Memorial Hospital fear their last chance for justice could disappear if police decide not to take forward criminal investigation.

Preparing for a meeting on Tuesday with assistant chief constable Nick Downing of the Eastern Policing Region, families said they have endured a "soul destroying" wait since the scale of the Gosport scandal was laid bare in June last year.

After a 20 year fight and 11 failed investigations, the Gosport Independent Panel revealed that as many as 650 patients were killed with medically unnecessary doses of opiate painkillers.

The inquiry found Dr Jane Barton, a GP and clinical assistant, had been chiefly responsible for the culture of prescribing on the wards. Though nurses, consultants and managers knew the doses being prescribed and were also actors in the "institutionalised practice of shortening lives".

Steve Watts, a former assistant chief constable with Hampshire Constabulary, who investigated 94 of the deaths said in January he believed at the time there was enough evidence for prosecutions.

But to date there have never been charges brought, with institutions who closed ranks when families first raised concerns manoeuvring themselves out of the crosshairs again.

“We have never had a straight answer to any question," said Gillian Mackenzie, 84, the first person to go to the police about Gosport after the death of her mother Gladys Richards in 1998 "They’re supposed to be investigating, but they’re not - they're just looking at the Bishop's report."

Ms Mackenzie and several other families have called for Dr Barton to face criminal charges for the 15 strongest cases, and the rest to go to public inquiry.

There have also been calls for the former head of Hampshire Constabulary, Paul Kernaghan, to charged as well over the failed police investigations that initially wrote families off as "troublemakers".

"All this is - as an investigation - is to see how they can bring out Hampshire Police as white as snow," Ms Mackenzie added.

“The last nine months have been soul destroying really,” said Ann Reeves, whose mother Elsie Devine died after going into Gosport with a kidney infection in 1999.

“These inquiries, they can go nowhere, but this one - I think - will".

Elsie Devine, 88, died after being given diamorphine and other opiates despite not being in pain (Ann Reeves)

When the Gosport Panel was convened four years ago the Reeves family were expecting that it would be a matter of months before the scale of the evidence led to a referral to the Crown Prosecution Service or a full public inquiry.

But it has dragged on for a further four years, and Ms Reeves said evidence collected by the Gosport panel shows how successive governments have tried to interfere with the investigation.

"When it launched we had Theresa May - in the archives - saying 'when are you thinking of reporting it?', " Ms Reeves said. "She was more worried about how it would affect things politically, and her party."

Documents released as part of the Gosport Panel's evidence include NHS legal advice suggesting the government would also be liable for Dr Barton's actions.

This follows claims form Liberal Democrat MP Norman Lamb, then a health minister in the coalition government, that ministers had tried to block the inquiry.

"It should have been a public inquiry," she said, noting that the public cost of the investigation so far is approaching £18m. "All these people we don’t feel have been sincere to us are just earning money on the back of our grief."

The families have been offered no legal support from the government so far and refused to speculate on what ACC Downing would say, or their next steps if he concludes there is not enough evidence to justify a police investigation.

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“At this stage it would be reprehensible to consider the families hearing anything less than a criminal investigation,” said Bridget Reeves, Anne’s daughter and a spokesperson for the Gosport victims.

A Eastern Policing Region spokesman said: "Since September 2018 a team led by Assistant Chief Constable Nick Downing, representing the Eastern Policing Region, has been carrying out an independent assessment of the findings of the Gosport Independent Panel.

"There have been three previous police investigations into deaths at Gosport War Memorial Hospital so it was important to carry out an initial assessment to establish if there was sufficient new information that has not already been submitted to the Crown Prosecution Service.

"The outcome of the assessment, which is entirely independent of Hampshire Constabulary, Gosport War Memorial Hospital and the Department of Health and Social Care, will be announced to the families affected at a meeting on Tuesday 30 April 2019."

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: "What happened at Gosport War Memorial Hospital was a terrible tragedy and we continue to work so the families affected get the support they need.

"The Independent Inquiry Panel report was published in June 2018 and since then we have been supporting the police in their assessment."