'He was mentally tortured' say family of man who killed two in horror incident at Leeds hospital

Harry Bosomworth, 70, “was very much a victim as well” of the horror incident at a Leeds hospital, his anguished stepdaughter has said.

-> NHS Trust apologies after two patients killed in Leeds hospital ward attack

The hospital Trust said it followed correct procedures after the tragedy.

Harry Bosomworth, 70, attacked fellow patients Ken Godward, 76, and Roger Lamb, 79, with a walking stick while being treated for cancer at St James’s University Hospital in Leeds in February 2015.

Both Mr Godward and Mr Lamb later died.

The incident only came to light this month after an unpublished report into the incident was leaked to the Health Service Journal. It described how Mr Bosomworth had been taken off the anti-psychotic drug Olanzapine despite warnings from his family.

Speaking to the Yorkshire Evening Post, Mr Bosomworth’s stepdaughter, Rita Martin, said she had repeatedly warned medical staff that he was dangerous if he did not have his medication for paranoid schizophrenia.

“My dad was very much a victim as well because he suffered terribly at the hands of the hospital,” she said.

“Harry lived a happy, contented life and he took anti-psychotic medication every day for 53 years and as soon as he got in that hospital, they (stopped) his medication and he suffered and suffered and suffered a mental torture that culminated in him killing two patients.

“It doesn’t come much more horrific than that. A terrible way to end up for a sweet man like him.”

-> Two patients killed after Leeds hospital ward attack, leaked report reveals

Ms Martin, 69, a retired teacher, described Mr Bosomworth, of Seacroft, as a gentle man whose mental health problems were completely controlled by medication.

She said he did not recall the violent incident afterwards and no one told him what had happened. He died of cancer in June 2015.

Ms Martin said she was surprised that the deaths of the two patients was not made public at the time.

She said: “If you murder two people in the street, it’s all over the news but when it happens in hospital it’s OK, you don’t tell anybody. It’s all covered up.”

Ms Martin said she believed the incident had been “preventable and predictable” and was keen for a coroner’s inquest to put the circumstances behind the deaths on public record.

She said the medics’ knowledge about mental health matters had been so basic it was like “talking with laypeople”. And she said she hoped the case would prove to be a “tipping point”, sparking an overhaul of how people with mental health issues are treated in hospitals.