Report on death of Bertha Martin says mistakes were made

May 9 2009 by Coreena Ford, The Journal

AN elderly woman was killed by her mentally-ill daughter a month after telling carers she was not at risk, a top level report has revealed.

Bertha Martin died on her 85th birthday, a week after her daughter Jennifer Shelton smashed a pottery horse over her head at their home in Cleadon, South Tyneside.

Newcastle Crown Court jury found Shelton, 56, guilty of manslaughter in February and sentenced her to four years behind bars, after hearing how she had become aggressive and violent towards her mother in the weeks building up to the final attack last June.

Mrs Martin – who weighed less than six stone when she died – had been diagnosed with a terminal blood disease and leukaemia and Shelton claimed her mum treated her like a child.

Days after the case was concluded, South Tyneside Council announced it was leading a “serious case review” into the circumstances surrounding the pensioner’s death.

And the review of the case has now been made public, with a whole ream of recommendations being made in a bid to learn lessons from Mrs Martin’s death.

The report reveals Mrs Martin was receiving home care and had also had four emergency admissions to hospital before the final admission when she died.

It says there were concerns about Mrs Martin’s ability to cope with her daily living needs and the volatile relationship between her and her daughter.

Shelton was receiving help for mental illness, which included spells in hospitals.