Stourbridge care home to pay £250,000 after woman froze to death

Hilda Fairweather, aged 91, died from hypothermia after walking out of the Abele View care home in Iverley, near Stourbridge.

She had not been reported as missing from the site until almost 12 hours after she walked out of an insecure fire door in January 2009.

The care home has now been fined £133,000 and told to pay costs of £122,412 because of the catalogue of blunders, which meant vascular dementia sufferer Mrs Fairweather had been 'completely overlooked'.

Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court heard yesterday the home had two staff looking after 29 residents on the night she died.

Although the fire door was found ajar shortly after Mrs Fairweather disappeared, the court heard a head count was not done.

The company that owns the home, Abele View Ltd, pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to failing to ensure the safety of its residents and an insufficient risk assessment.

Mrs Fairweather, originally from Kidderminster, was last seen by staff at 7.30pm on January 29, 2009, and was found dead at 7.45am the following day.

Prosecutor Mr Bernard Thorogood said: "In the intervening time she should have been put to bed."

Mr Thorogood outlined 18 instances of 'accepted criminality' on behalf of Abele View. As well as accepting its failures caused Mrs Fairweather's death, Abele View also acknowledges it had inadequate staffing levels, and that risks were created by poor supervision and management.

Previous incidents in which residents were allowed to wander off, including a barefoot elderly man who plunged into a ditch, represented a series of wake-up calls for the home, the court was told.

Mr Thorogood added: "The sad and deeply unattractive facts are that she had frozen to death outside the home on a freezing night in January when she should not have been able to get out."

Since the death, Mr Walker said, the operator of Abele View had installed alarmed external doors and other measures.

Hilda Fairweather's son Roger, of Bishops Castle in Shropshire, said: "This case sends out a strong message that care homes need to make sure their services and systems are fully up to scratch to help prevent a tragedy like this happening again."