Guiseley police worker jailed for letting mum, 82, starve to death

A CIVILIAN police worker from Leeds who allowed her mother to starve to death in “almost indescribable squalor” has been jailed for 30 months.

Angela Pearson, 53, of Guiseley, was convicted by a jury of the manslaughter of Eileen Pearson, 82, by gross negligence.

The West Yorkshire Police employee failed to provide adequate food, nourishment and care to her mother and failed to summon timely medical help before she drove her dead body to hospital last May.

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Bed-ridden Mrs Pearson died from a combination of malnutrition and infected bed sores, Preston Crown Court heard.

When police visited their home in Fairway they found the property was uninhabitable and in extreme squalor.

The rooms were piled high with a mixture of discarded possessions, soiled clothes, soiled nappies, food waste, bottles filed with urine, human waste and decaying rubbish.

Pearson argued that she had “no idea” her mother was going to die and she had not breached her duty of care but a jury ruled otherwise.

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Sentencing her, Mr Justice Irwin said he accepted the defendant had a “very unusual background” and that had halved the length of the jail term.

But he said the vices of “selfishness” and “laziness” were conspicuous in her behaviour.

He said: “Leaving aside the squalor you lived in, your mother starved over months. She was grossly weakened by that process and you effectively did nothing to prevent it.

“The pressure sores were dreadful. They were so advanced that the pathologist who gave evidence in this trial said that only once in 15 years had they seen anything like it. That is truly shocking.

“You made a real contribution to her death.”

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The judge said the prosecution team officer at West Yorkshire Police’s Leeds Criminal Justice Support Unit was able to function “very well” outside of the home environment.

Prosecutor Rachel Smith QC described Pearson to the jury as “professional, diligent, articulate and capable”.

Pearson came from a wealthy family and acknowledged in her evidence that she had sufficient funds not to need to go to work.

She had an interest in home crafts and attended a three-day course in Harrogate over the weekend before her mother died.

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“You were capable of discharging real responsibility,” said Mr Justice Irwin. “You had the capacity to look after your mother if you made the effort to do so.

“I accept you loved your mother but you grossly neglected her.”

During the trial he said she had acknowledged her failures to a degree but said she had “never took personal responsibility fully for what you did”.

Pearson’s defence was that she and her mother suffered Diogenes syndrome, also known as senile squalor syndrome, which is characterised by such actions as compulsive hoarding of rubbish.

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They were also said to suffer from folie a deux syndrome - translated from French as madness created between two people.

Folie a deux depended on one person being the primary individual - in this case Eileen Pearson - with the other person being in the shadow of them, it was said on her behalf.

When the dominant partner is no longer present then the other person’s symptoms tend to wane.

The court heard that Pearson was no longer in Fairway or the other family home at nearby Ghyll Royd but in the “temporary accommodation” of a holiday park caravan home which she bought in cash for £130,000.

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Sources said the home in the Knaresborough area was in stark contrast to the squalor of the addresses in Guiseley and was kept in good condition.

Mr Justice Irwin said he was satisfied the pair did indeed live in an “enmeshed way” in which she was dependent on her mother and she in turn became wholly dependent on her.

Her mother had difficulties in her life and was a sufferer from Diogenes but the judge said he thought Pearson was not, but had become acclimatised to their way of life as she grew isolated as a child and adult.

Mitigating before sentence, Andrew Stubbs QC, defending, said: “What is plain is that this defendant was a vulnerable and inadequate woman.

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“My lord knows the depression that has existed throughout her life continues now with the suicidal thoughts since her mother’s death.

“She cared too much in the wrong way, doing what was plainly inadequate but we submit that was her best.

“This private person has lost her privacy, her home, her job and, most importantly of all, her mother.”

Following sentencing, Detective Superintendent Mark Ridley, of West Yorkshire Police’s Homicide and Major Inquiry Team, said: “As sole carer to her sick and elderly mother, Angela Pearson had a responsibility to make sure she was properly cared for.

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“The evidence clearly showed that she failed in that duty and her neglect resulted in her mother dying in squalid conditions.

“She then went to some lengths to create a facade by taking her mother’s body in her car, to a hospital 10 miles away from their home where staff immediately recognised she had been dead for some time.

“This was obviously done in the vain hope that the state of the home she and her mother were living in would not be discovered.

“This is an extremely sad case which will hopefully serve to remind people caring for elderly relatives, who may be experiencing difficulty, that there are a broad range of health and social care services available to provide support in such circumstances and the possible consequences of imprisonment in the most serious cases of neglect, where adequate care is not provided or sought.”

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Unmarried Pearson was ordered to pay £36,000 prosecution costs from her substantial assets and also the defence costs which are yet to be determined.

Mr Justice Irwin said the living conditions in Fairway were of “almost indescribable squalor” and that the police officers who dealt with the house, including those who spent up to nine weeks in collecting evidence, should be commended.

He said: “I would like to make it clear there must be times when police officers’ duties are extremely unpleasant but I cannot recall anything as unpleasant as that.”