CHELMSFORD: Health trust admits errors over hanging

A MENTAL health hospital where a suicidal father was unsupervised and found hanged has admitted a catalogue of failings which his family claim could have prevented his death.

Ben Morris, 20, was admitted to the Linden Centre, Broomfield, in December 2008, where an inquiry has now revealed staff treated him as a 'threat and a nuisance' and were unaware of increased suicidal side effects of his medication, just days before his death.

North Essex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, who led the panel inquiry into Ben's death, made 17 recommendations for improvements on the Galleywood Wing, but his family are still struggling to understand how his death was allowed to happen.

His mother, Lisa Morris, of Burns Close, Maldon, said: "We are still here 14 months on with no answers, it's like a never-ending nightmare, because there has been no inquest so we don't know what exactly happened. Your mind fills in the blanks and it is torture."

Read the full story in this week's Chronicle.