The BBC reports that Hampshire Constabulary is considering investigating a complaint against Southern Health made by Richard West.
As a result, they have agreed to reopen a complaint made by a Southern Health ‘survivor’ in 2012: at the time, the Force Solicitor considered it a civil not a criminal matter. In the last three years that ‘victim’ has amassed a large bundle of additional evidence that, taken as a whole and combined with other complainants, might now support the prosecution of a different offence.
Of course, this limits what I can write but many readers will know the story and the name. As a result of the recent meeting of the Council of Governors, the identity of the 2012 complainant potentially is in the public domain already – and certainly is known to the BBC, who recorded the meeting.
If the police do become fully proactive (i.e. by issuing a Crime Number), will this finally shame the Board sufficiently to suspend Katrina Percy and Lesley Stevens … or will they simply use a police investigation as another excuse to delay taking any action at all? I suspect we all know the answer.
