Lousia Ovington independent investigation report ... - NHS North East
Lousia Ovington independent investigation report ... - NHS North East Lousia Ovington independent investigation report ... - NHS North East
TERMS OF REFERENCE 10 This introduction has noted the difficulties faced by professionals who were being asked to remember past events and judgements made, in some cases, long ago. By the same token the panel regrets that this report is published more than four years since the death of Mr Hilton. However, the trust’s internal review was not completed until February 2008 and the work of collating the information from so many sources meant that the panel’s work could not commence until the autumn of 2008. Although there has been no attempt at all by the SHA, the family of Mr Hilton or any of the agencies to place pressure on the panel to complete its work, the members of the panel have been acutely conscious of the need to produce a useful and comprehensive document within a reasonable timescale and have striven to do so.
CHAPTER 1 - NARRATIVE OF KEY DATES AND EVENTS Chapter 1 - Narrative of key dates and events Birth to 23 December 1995 (her first admission to hospital) 1. Louisa Ovington was born on 31 August 1978. She was brought up in Scotland. Louisa Ovington’s mother left her husband (Louisa Ovington’s father) following episodes of domestic violence and moved to Edinburgh with her daughter. She withheld her address from him. In August 1984, when Louisa Ovington was five years old, her father tracked them down. (It has been suggested that Louisa Ovington might have inadvertently given away their whereabouts). He then stabbed Louisa Ovington’s mother to death in front of Louisa Ovington. There are reports that following this Louisa Ovington stayed by her mother trying to give her food. Following her mother’s death Louisa Ovington was then briefly taken in by her mother’s sister before being moved to her maternal great aunt and uncle in the Durham area. She took their name and they brought her up and acted as her guardians until she was 18. 2. There are comments within her psychiatric notes which indicate that she began to present with behavioural problems from early on in her time with her great aunt and uncle. She had nightmares and drew violent pictures. In 1988, at age 11, she started at St Bede’s Comprehensive School in Peterlee and from then on she was often in conflict with her teachers due to her behaviour. According to later reports from her great uncle (now deceased) she never cried; never said sorry; showed no signs of remorse for her actions and was a compulsive liar. The great aunt and uncle also reported that she slept with knives under her bed. 3. Social services became involved with her for nine months from October 1993, but there are no records of this. However, her first contact with psychiatric services appears to have been in November 1993 when she was assessed by Consultant 1, a Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist at the Royal Free Hospital in London, who was an acknowledged expert in the trauma suffered by children who witnessed one parent killing the other. 4. Consultant 1’s opinion was that Louisa Ovington was not showing any signs of post-traumatic stress disorder, but that she was showing signs of mild behavioural problems, which Consultant 1 considered to be normal teenage behaviour, rather than deep-seated effects of her genetic endowment or of the trauma that she witnessed. 5. Louisa Ovington’s behaviour continued to cause concern both at home and at school, from which she was temporarily excluded, apparently for pretending that a white powder was cocaine. She started using street drugs while a student at Peterlee College. In respect of academic achievements her own accounts vary so much from 11
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TERMS OF REFERENCE<br />
10<br />
This introduction has noted the difficulties faced by professionals who were being<br />
asked to remember past events and judgements made, in some cases, long ago.<br />
By the same token the panel regrets that this <strong>report</strong> is published more than four<br />
years since the death of Mr Hilton. However, the trust’s internal review was not<br />
completed until February 2008 and the work of collating the information from so<br />
many sources meant that the panel’s work could not commence until the autumn<br />
of 2008. Although there has been no attempt at all by the SHA, the family of Mr<br />
Hilton or any of the agencies to place pressure on the panel to complete its work, the<br />
members of the panel have been acutely conscious of the need to produce a useful<br />
and comprehensive document within a reasonable timescale and have striven to do so.
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