Charity bosses face court

Apr 18 2009 by Paul James, The Journal

CHARITY bosses who sent tragic care worker Ashleigh Ewing to the home of her killer are to be prosecuted.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) announced yesterday it would be taking Mental Health Matters to court for alleged failings which cost the 22-year-old her life.

Inexperienced Ashleigh was fatefully sent to the home of paranoid schizophrenic Ronald Dixon, alone, on May 19, 2006. Dixon flipped when the trainee support worker, handed him a letter ordering him to pay for damage he had caused to his flat, on behalf of the Sunderland-based charity, she worked for.

Ashleigh, of Hebburn, South Tyneside, never stood a chance as Dixon launched a savage attack, stabbing her 35 times with four kitchen knives and a pair of scissors. His knife assault was so frenzied one of the blades even snapped off and was embedded in her body.

Dixon was detained indefinitely at a high security hospital, after admitting manslaughter before a judge at Newcastle Crown Court, in 2007.

But Ashleigh’s parents have continued to question why their beloved daughter was sent to her killer’s home, on Eighth Avenue, Heaton, with no training or back-up and when she had no idea how dangerous Dixon was.

Graduate, Ashleigh, had only been working for the charity for six months, when she was asked to visit Dixon.

Despite others in the mental health system knowing his behaviour was becoming more erratic – and that he had threatened to kill someone if he did not take his medication – Ashleigh was not told he had a violent, dangerous past. Following its own investigation into the circumstances surrounding Ashleigh’s death the HSE has now said it is prosecuting Mental Health Matters for an alleged breach of health and safety law.

The charity is accused of failing to protect Ashleigh, under Section 2 (1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act, which states: “It shall be the duty of every employer to ensure, so far as it reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare at work of all of his employees.”

A HSE statement said: “The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is prosecuting Mental Health Matters for an alleged breach of health and safety law following its investigation into the death of a care worker in Newcastle upon Tyne on May 19, 2006.