Holmesley Care Home faces inquest into deaths during Covid

The hearing is expected to take place in autumn and is set to last for two days

A coroner is to examine seven deaths at a care home in Sidford at the height of the coronavirus pandemic.

This follows a police investigation into 11 deaths at Vale View Heights, formerly known as Holmesley Care Home, in early 2021.

At a pre-inquest review at Exeter Coroner's Court on Monday, coroner Alison Longhorn said she had reason to suspect the deaths were "unnatural".

Ms Longhorn decided to have one inquest covering all of the deaths.

'Loved ones'

The seven people the inquest will focus on are Roy Gilliam, Jean Hartley, Doris Lockett, William Wilkinson, Susan Skinner, Ronald Bampfylde and Stanislawa Koch.

While she did not set a date for the hearing, the coroner said she expected it to be held in the autumn and to last for two days.

She said that "on the face of it" all seven appeared, from the medical causes of death given, to have died from natural causes.

"They are chest infections, Covid," she said.

"But a natural cause of death could be considered unnatural for a number of reasons - for example, if the death has been contributed to by neglect.

"I was made aware there were some queries around how the Covid infection was managed at the care home," Ms Longhorn added.

"I have reason to suspect these, on the face of it, natural deaths are, in fact, unnatural.

"We will be looking at the weeks prior to these deaths, the infection with Covid, how that was managed by the care home and how these people, your loved ones, came to be infected and how the outbreak was managed."

The hearing will look at what the government's Covid guidance was like at the time and it will hear from doctors and pathologists as well as police officers who investigated the deaths.