Sally’s inquest has been delayed  for 3 years because of a prosecution that was ongoing in the criminal courts instigated by the Care Quality Commission relating to Dimensions’ care for Sally. We have not been able to update the page whilst that process has been ongoing. Unfortunately, the process has ended with an unsuccessful prosecution  due to Dimensions having raised a technical issue about time limits. Sally’s family have been waiting for justice and the criminal process has unfortunately let Sally down. We need to ensure the inquest into Sally’s death uncovers what happened to Sally and why she died, and we need to raise funds to ensure we are able to do that for representation by a legal team.

We have waited 5 and a half years to find out why Sally was failed by the people employed to care for her.

We feel unable to grieve until we know why ?

We have fought so hard and put our trust in the legal system designed to protect people who have no voice.

We were let down Sally was let down.

The only way we will get some answers is at her inquest which has been postponed 5 times.

We cannot represent ourselves at the Inquest.Dimensions can afford the best solicitors and barristers ,ours have to be paid for by us.

It seems so wrong when we are only trying to find out the truth as to why our beautiful Sal died.

Thank you so much for helping get justice for Sally and maybe helping someone else in the future.x

Sallys Family x

Thank you to all who have contributed to Sally’s case – it is incredibly appreciated and has meant that our lawyers have been able to get to work combing through all of the documents we have so far to find out what happened to Sally before she died. We have some important updates in the inquest proceedings below.


What happened to Sally
Sally had learning disabilities and died in the care home in which she lived. She suffered from chronic constipation, and died following her bowel having burst. Reports investigating her death found that there were serious issues with her care and support meaning that her constipation was not properly monitored and managed. An inquest is due to take place in July to investigate Sally’s death.

We had asked the Coroner to rule that the inquest would be held in accordance with Article 2 of the Human Rights Act. This would have had the effect of the investigation not just investigating Sally’s death, but the wider circumstances of her death and the time she spent at the care home. It would also have meant legal aid funding might be available for our representation.

Why we need your help!
Unfortunately, the Coroner has ruled that the inquest will not be held in accordance with Article 2 of the Human Rights Act. I cannot get legal aid for the Inquest, and a challenge to the ruling would mean Sally’s Inquest would be even more delayed – and on top of that, there is no guarantee that it would be successful.

We need to get to the truth of what happened to our Sally, and get there as soon as possible. The failings by Dimensions have already been independently criticised by the local NHS Trust, who said there was a “clear failure by Dimensions in the management and monitoring of Sally’s bowel care, the outcome of which was catastrophic to Sally” . The longer we wait, the longer people like Sally are at risk of suffering the same fate.

It is essential that my lawyers can stay on board for the 5 day inquest in July. Thousands more documents have been provided to us, and there is a huge amount of work to be done by our legal team to ensure that the right questions are asked of the people that were supposed to look after Sally. The people who failed her so badly when she needed them most.

Sally’s carers and doctors have lawyers attending and protecting them in the inquest, and we need to make sure there is someone there doing the same for Sally too.

How can you help?
Any donations – big or small – would be greatly appreciated. Our lawyers have a lot of work to do for Sally before the inquest in July, and the inquest will involve five days of evidence from a number of different witnesses. Without our lawyers Sally’s voice will be lost.

We are a long way off our stretch target of £20,000 – and although the inquest is some way away in July, the Coroner has asked us to go through the documents and provide input to assist his investigation in the coming months. We do not have the funds to do so at the moment.

If you can make a further donation, we would be incredibly grateful. If not, then it would be really helpful if you could share the campaign on social media.

Thank you again for all of your support so far. We are approaching the final stretch and are getting closer to finding out the truth of what happened to our Sally. Please help us uncover the problems with Sally’s care and make sure no one else goes through what she did again.

Thank you to everyone who has donated so far.  Your help really is appreciated and gets us closer to being able to find out what happened to Sally and make sure this doesn’t happen to anybody else.

To recap, Sally had profound learning difficulties and she was at the time of her death receiving 24/7 care - she was an extremely vulnerable person.  Despite her being known to suffer from constipation, and being prescribed daily medication by her GP, an independent medical review has found that she wasn’t given this medication for months, staff weren’t trained on how to handle constipation and failed to keep records about her condition. Her death as a result of severe constipation was entirely preventable.  

A pre-inquest review hearing was held on 16 September 2019.  The Coroner has delayed making a decision on whether the inquest will be held in accordance with Article 2 of the Human Rights Act (the right to life) or not, until March 2020.  This means there is no guarantee of legal aid funding and makes your help all the more important.