Pensioner left Parkinson's sufferer husband to die as she did not want to spend life savings on care, court hears

By Agency

Woman accused of leaving husband in pool of urine for up to seven days before he died as she did not want to spend money on getting him help

05 Jan 2016

Joan Downing is accused of killing her husband Maurice Photo: INS

A pensioner is accused of killing her husband of 50 years by leaving him on the floor of their home for up to seven days after he fell over, a court heard. 

Maurice Downing, 82, was left in a pool of urine by 72-year-old Joan Downing, who has gone on trial accused of his manslaughter. Reading Crown Court heard she had told carers she did not want to spend her money on getting him help. 

A jury was told of the death of Mr Downing, who was eventually taken to hospital covered in bed sores after paramedics found him lying on the floor of the family home surrounded by urine and faeces. 

Prosecutor Christopher Donnellan QC told the jury that it was a "sad case" in which Mrs Downing was accused of neglecting to alert medical authorities to the plight of her husband and displaying "gross negligence" while he was in her care. 

"She failed to such an extreme that when she dialled 999 it was too late. He was in such a bad way that he couldn't recover" 

Christopher Donnellan QC 

She denies manslaughter and insists her husband had spent just 24 hours on their living room floor before she dialled 999 on June 1, 2014. 

Mr Downing - a Parkinson's disease sufferer who had limited mobility and regularly suffered falls - was taken to hospital, but died five days later from multiple organ failure. He was covered in bedsores and was so dehydrated his kidneys had failed. 

Mr Donnellan said that Mrs Downing's "determined behaviour" in taking on sole responsibility for her husband's care had led to a "gross failure" in his healthcare. 

"This is a sad case about the untimely death of Maurice Downing," he told the jury. "His wife is charged with his manslaughter primarily because she failed in her duty to get him medical help when he needed it and as a consequence of that he died. 

"She failed to such an extreme that when she dialled 999 it was too late. He was in such a bad way that he couldn't recover." 

He added: "From early April 2014 up to and including June 1, Joan Downing voluntarily and determinedly took on sole care of Maurice. 

"She had taken on that responsibility and she owed him a duty of care. He was aged, infirm, vulnerable and disabled - he required full time care and she breached that duty of care." 

Jurors heard how Mr Downing's health had declined from 2013, but until the last year of his life he had been able to make his own way around on a walking frame or in a wheelchair. 

They were told he briefly lived with one of his daughters in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, before being moved into a care home when she could not cope, and later being transferred closer to home in Berkshire.

The case is being heard at Reading Crown Court  Photo: Alamy

The pensioner was then discharged from Burnham House in Slough in April 2014 and into his wife's care on her instructions - but against advice from medical professionals, the prosecutor said. 

The mother of two is said to have insisted she could look after her husband and, despite a care package being put in place involving daily visits from carers, allegedly refused to let them into the couple's home in Slough, Berkshire. 

When social workers managed on one occasion to get in through a back door to check on Mr Downing, his wife ordered them out, saying she would decide who to let into her home and did not need their assistance, the trial was told. 

The court heard that she told them she did not want to spend her life savings on care, when other people got it for free. 

Mr Donnellan said it was not clear why Downing had stopped tending to her husband, but it might have been because she did not want to spend money, was being stubborn or did not want to admit she could not cope. 

Downing was allowed to sit outside the dock during proceedings because she had difficulty hearing. The trial, before Judge Johanna Cutts QC, continues.

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