Leading Healthcare Group Fined £300k Over Death of 14-Year-Old Girl

Wednesday, 17th April 2019

Amy El-Keria, 14, was found hanged in her room at the private hospital in East Sussex, in November 2012.

In 2016, an inquest found her death may have been prevented if she had received proper care. The private company, which runs mental health services as part of an NHS contract, was sentenced at Lewes Crown Court. The Health and Safety Executive pursued a criminal investigation and the company admitted to a charge of being an employer failing to discharge its duty to ensure people were not exposed to health and safety risks.

A court hearing in January was told the teenager, who was deemed high-risk and had a "known and recent history" of suicide attempts, was admitted to the hospital on 23 August 2012. She was left with unsupervised access and the means to carry out another suicide attempt. On November 12, she was found with a ligature around her neck and taken to Conquest Hospital in Hastings, where she died the next day.