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It was the Tuesday afternoon session of the inquiry.
‘Beth, I’m going to have to leave about 4.15 ish this afternoon, I’m sorry I can’t stay for the whole session, there’s someone I need to see,’ said Trish as they were waiting for proceedings to begin.
‘Oh, don’t worry, I’ll be fine. I feel bad as it is, asking you to spend so much of your time with me. You will be missing so much work over the next few weeks.’
‘Look, we’ve been through this, it’s fine. I only work part-time now. It’s just this is important, I have to speak to my supervisor about a client, it’s important,’ she lied.
‘Of course, I understand completely. You must focus on your patients.’
Beth always referred to Trish’s clients as patients. She didn’t mind and had given up trying to correct her.
‘How’s Tom’s work these days?’ asked Beth. However, Trish didn’t get a chance to reply as Dame Margaret entered the auditorium accompanied by the Inquiry Secretary, John Sedgley and they took their seats.
‘Good afternoon, everyone. I hope that the air-conditioning will hold out for the rest of today. It wasn’t too bad this morning. If I feel the atmosphere is becoming unbearable, I will call for more frequent comfort breaks. Ms Overton, please call your next witness.’
‘Thank you. Mrs Bridget Price.’
‘This should be interesting,’ whispered Beth. ‘She’s a really nice woman, and she genuinely does care for her residents, but she’s just seemed so distracted of late.’
As they were speaking the witness was being sworn in according to the usual procedure. Mrs Price was clearly nervous and looked around anxiously as if awaiting a sentence at the end of a criminal trial.
‘Mrs Price. You have been the manager of Stour View Care home for ten years and are responsible for drawing up care plans for each resident,’ summarised Gina.
‘Yes,’ the witness replied quietly.
‘OK. Well, we have some information from the relatives of three of your residents in Stour View who state that the care plans were never updated or reviewed to reflect the increasing needs of the individual. Do you have any comments?’
‘It’s possible that some reviews are overdue, but I have a very heavy workload. I know I’ve not been as vigilant as I should and I’m sorry.’ Her voice wavered as she apologised. She appeared to be trembling with fear, she looked extremely uneasy. A stray tear trickled down her face, and she brushed it away with her hand.
‘Mrs Price, do you feel able to continue?’ interrupted Dame Margaret.
‘Er, I don’t know. I’m sorry, I’m not feeling too good actually,’ she paused, then suddenly said, ‘I’m getting divorced, you see. My husband is fighting me for custody. It’s all been so, er so, upsetting.’ She began to cry. ‘Sorry, sorry.’ Her hand strayed to her mousy brown hair which was cut in a simple bob, parted down the middle and then wrestled a tissue from her sleeve and wiped her eyes and the top of her lip.
‘I think you should return to your seat, Mrs Price,’ instructed Dame Margaret. ‘We can reschedule.’
The witness left the stand, catching her foot against the edge of it, causing her to stumble slightly before regaining her footing.
‘Ms Overton, can you continue or should we adjourn?’
‘I have some footage to show which illustrates the behaviour of Jason Morley. Shall I continue?’
‘Please do,’ replied Dame Margaret.
‘I am going to play a short section of footage from the webcam installed in Mrs Yalding’s room by her daughter and son-in-law, Mrs and Mr Sheldon. There are disturbing scenes, but it is necessary for the inquiry to realise the level of abuse suffered. Also, whilst Mrs Yalding was physically frail, she was lucid and coherent and told her family that she had suffered like this at least once a week. In total, probably ten times before this footage was captured,’ Gina paused to bring up the video, and it began to play on the screen.
Jason Morley could be seen taking Mrs Yalding’s soiled incontinence pad and rubbing it over her face, particularly over her mouth and nose. ‘You filthy old cow!’ he shouted at her. ‘Look what you’ve done! Again! Why should I clear up your shit?’
He removed the pad from her face and using his gloved hand, slapped her across her cheek. The elderly lady’s head lolled back, and she cried out. The participants at the inquiry gasped and some cried out. Others covered their faces in horror at what they were witnessing. The abuse continued in the same vein. Mrs Yalding recoiled and attempted to raise herself from her chair, but her carer pushed her back roughly.
Trish looked at her friend who had her eyes closed.
‘You can leave, they won’t mind,’ said Trish. ‘Do you want me to come with you?’
Beth didn’t answer, she appeared to be paralysed, and shrunk down in her seat as if to physically distance herself from proceedings. The video clip finished, and everyone was waiting for Gina’s comments, but instead, they heard her admonishing an intruder.
‘Oh, go away,’ said Gina as she flapped at a wasp which had been circling around her for the last minute or so. ‘Sorry about that,’ she said to the room. ‘Goodness, it’s persistent.’
‘Perhaps we should pause?’ said Dame Margaret as counsel’s attempts to escape from the entomological onslaught was a distraction.
‘I’ll just stay still,’ said Gina. ‘Otherwise, I’ll get stung.’
The wasp wasn’t listening, it landed on her collar and burrowed its way down on to her neck.
‘Oh, no! It’s gone inside my blouse,’ she shrieked. ‘Aghh, I’ve been stung! Ouch, no!’ she was pulling at her blouse and tried to unbutton the top couple of buttons discretely. Julius used a piece of paper and managed to coax the wasp out, and it fell down to the desk whereupon, he wielded a large book and flattened the offending creature.
‘Got it!’ he shouted triumphantly.
‘Ow, my neck,’ said Gina, holding the area where she had been stung.
‘You’ve got a very red patch,’ said Julius.
‘I think that’s my birthmark,’ said Gina, pulling down her collar. She had a port-wine birthmark, about the size of an egg on the left side of her neck, quite low down, below collar level.
‘I think the stings are towards the edge of that,’ said Julius.
‘I think we should break for thirty minutes or so,’ said Dame Margaret. ‘Let us reconvene at 3 p.m.’
People started to gather their things, and there was a considerable commotion from the public area.
‘Help!’ please, shouted a gentleman as a woman had slumped to the floor in a faint. The afternoon session was turning into a disaster.
Dr Gajar pushed his way along the row of seats to administer to the woman.
‘Step back, please,’ he called.
‘Get security in here and a first aider,’ said Dame Margaret to her secretary John, who bustled out of the auditorium.
Within a minute or so, security officials entered the auditorium to usher people out to make room for the medical team. Dr Gajar had placed the woman in the recovery position and was making sure her airways were clear. He felt for a pulse on her neck and was relieved to find that it seemed normal.
‘Hello, can you hear me?’ he asked. ‘You’re OK, don’t worry, just relax.’
All thoughts of the inquiry were temporarily halted as the emergency was dealt with.
