A husband has been found guilty of killing his emaciated wife who weighed only four stone and was denied water for a week after she was left to ‘die in her own filth’ during lockdown.
Robert Morgan, 61, was convicted of killing 71-year-old Dorothy Morgan who caught gangrene and died from sepsis after being left covered in her own urine and faeces.
His co-accused David Holyoak, 53, Dorothy’s son by another man, was also found guilty of manslaughter.
The Lies He Sold
On January 25, 2021, Morgan told a Cumbria Health operator his wife had ‘literally tried to starve herself to death’ over several weeks and ‘looks like something from a death camp’.
Carlisle Crown Court heard how Dorothy was found in a malnourished and dehydrated state when admitted to the West Cumberland Hospital on the same day.Â
Paramedics found her unkempt and dressed in clothing which was heavily soiled. She was also clinically dehydrated and severely malnourished.
The Discovery
Upon Mrs Morgan’s arrival at hospital she was found to be suffering from acute kidney failure, consistent with extreme dehydration, and sepsis. She died 10 days later on February 4, 2021.
A jury took 23 hours and 12 minutes to reach a guilty decision for both Morgan and Holyoak, who denied manslaughter by gross negligence. Neither showed emotion when the verdict was read out in court.
Judge Goddard KC told both men following the decision to prepare for an ‘immediate custodial sentence’.
Further investigations revealed she was also suffering from cancer, although that was found to play no part in her death. Her physical condition was such that she could not have withstood any treatment, the court heard.
Cause of Death
A pathologist concluded that Mrs Morgan’s death was caused by her severely emaciated state and neglected infected pressure ulcers. A paramedic had noted that some leg sores were so deep that the pensioner’s bones could be seen.
Prosecutor Iain Simkin KC told jurors that a geriatrician specialising in care for the elderly had concluded the level of Mrs Morgan’s dehydration suggested she had not been given adequate fluid for seven to 10 days. During that time, her urine output would have diminished to zero.
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Court Heard
Carlisle Crown Court previously heard how Dorothy’s cheeks were left ‘sunken’ after she spent her final few weeks living on a settee in her family home in Whitehaven, Cumbria.
Morgan had told the jury that the pensioner was ‘terrified’ of hospitals and had ordered him not to call doctors for medical intervention if she required it. He also accepted under cross-examination by prosecutor Iain Simkin KC, that from early January 2021, he had ‘failed to take care of her basic human needs.’
But he did not claim full responsibility for her death, on February 4, 2021, saying he ‘didn’t notice’ her terrible condition as things had ‘got on top of him’.
Court Ruling
She said: ‘You have now been convicted of manslaughter by gross negligence of Dorothy Morgan. You will appreciate that this is a very serious offence indeed and it’s almost inevitable that there will be immediate custodial sentences; you must both come to terms with that.’
Gail O’Brien, senior crown prosecutor for CPS North West, said after the verdict: ‘This is one of the worst cases of manslaughter by gross negligence I have seen.’
