Inquiry Chair Appointment

The North East Strategic Health Authority has appointed Mr Joseph O’Brien, Paradise Chambers, to chair an inquiryinto the healthcare and treatment of Ronald Dixon. Dixon, 35, pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of mental health worker Ashleigh Ewing, 22, in May 2006, on the grounds of diminished responsibility. Ms Ewing was visiting Dixon in his flat in Eighth Avenue, Heaton, Newcastle, when the attack took place. In October 2007, he was sentenced to be detained indefinitely at Rampton Secure Hospital. The independent inquiry is taking place under health service guidelines which apply when crimes of murder or manslaughter are committed by people who have been receiving mental health services. The remit of the inquiry panels will be to consider, and make appropriate recommendations on, the healthcare and treatment received at the time of the incident; the suitability of care and the exercise of professional and clinical judgment. The other members of the inquiry panel are Tim Evans, deputy director of nursing at Cumbria Partnership NHS Trust; Dr A Simpson, consultant psychiatrist at Cumbria Partnership NHS Trust and Nicola Bailey, director of adult and community services at Hartlepool Borough Council. (2^nd July 2008).