Security improvements made at mental health unit after student's death

Security improvements have been made at a mental health unit in the years since the death of a student who escaped through a window in 1994.

Anthony Whittle, who was suffering from paranoid schizophrenia, had been taken to the Hergest psychiatric unit at Ysbyty Gwynedd in Bangor but fled and was later found dead.

A fresh inquest was held this week after the high court ruled that the original hearing in 1995 was inadequate.

A jury concluded Anthony, 30, died by misadventure after suffering an acute mental health episode, undergoing an assessment and leaving the unit through what was believed to be a secure window.

His parents fought for a new hearing over many years, but died before it was held.

Anthony was in the first year of a course studying forestry at Bangor University when, on 24 November 1994, he called his parents in Burnley, Lancashire, and said he wanted to come home.

His father and his brother set off to meet him at Chester station, but he did not turn up.

They later discovered he had been found wet and covered in grass, wandering in sand dunes near Prestatyn, Denbighshire, with a shoe missing.

Police arranged for him to be taken to the psychiatric unit where his father and brother went to meet him.

His brother, Christopher, told the hearing in Caernarfon that Anthony "hugged us and said he loved us, but said he'd changed".

"We went back to reception, but the doctor came back and said Anthony had got out through the window and down a sloping roof."

Anthony was found dead close to the A55 dual carriageway near Llandygai the next morning.

Current staff at the Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board, which now runs the unit, told the inquest that changes had been made in the three decades since Anthony died.

Windows are more secure, and anti-climb guttering has been installed, while the system for assessing patients brought in by police has also changed.

"Although it has taken a very long time to get here, it feels good to have done this for my parents and for Anthony," said Christopher, following the hearing.

"I have always known it was wrong that my brother was able to escape from what was supposed to be a secure mental health unit."

Becky Randel, of RWK Goodman solicitors, said she was pleased that Christopher had finally been able to have Anthony's death "properly explored" and been able to "question those who made decisions in his care and were involved in the search for him".