TEWV to be sentenced after deaths of Christie Harnett and Patient X

The trust will appear before Teesside Magistrates Court this morning after pleading guilty last September to charges brought against it after two patients, Christie Harnett and an unnamed young woman, died at its hospitals in Middlesbrough.

Christie, from Newton Aycliffe, was 17-years-old when she died at West Lane Hospital in June 2019 while under TEWV’s care.

Christie Harnett. (Image: THE NORTHERN ECHO)

A second young woman, who is known as Patient X and cannot be named due to reporting restrictions, was treated at the trust’s Roseberry Park hospital where she died in 2020.

Last September the trust admitted two charges of breaching the health and social care act in relation to each of their deaths.

The trust will be sentenced in a short hearing at 10am.

The sentencing will take place at Teesside Magistrates' Court. (Image: CHRIS BOOTH)

Speaking after a court hearing last year Christie’s stepdad Michael said: “She was such a big part of our lives. Christie was just so willing to help anyone, even on the wards, she'd be helping people.

“There has sort of been closure today – but what makes it worse is that they have admitted that Christie’s death was their fault, that it was preventable and shouldn’t have happened.”

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TEWV was cleared in relation to the death of a third patient, 18-year-old Emily Moore from Shildon, County Durham, after a trial in February.

Emily took her own life while being treated as an inpatient at Lanchester Road psychiatric hospital in Durham, in February 2020. A judge found the trust not guilty last month after the Care Quality Commission (CQC) alleged a “poor quality” care plan exposed her to unsafe care and serious risk of avoidable harm.

A CQC report published last March (2023), found were serious failings in the care given to three teenage patients – including Christie Harnett and Emily Moore – saying it was “chaotic and unsafe” before their deaths between June 2019 and February 2020.