Gosport hospital deaths: Lead officer in police probe to retire

Assistant Chief Constable Nick Downing, head of serious crime at Kent and Essex Police, will retire in July

The lead officer investigating the deaths of hundreds of patients at Gosport Hospital is retiring.

An inquiry found 456 patients had died after being given opiate drugs between 1987 and 2001. A new probe was launched in April.

Assistant Chief Constable Nick Downing will retire next month due to "personal reasons", Kent Police said.

Hampshire's Police and Crime Commissioner Michael Lane said it would not disrupt proceedings.

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Neil Jerome, of the Metropolitan Police, will now lead the investigation into the deaths.

Maggie Cheetham, whose aunt Ethel Thurston died at at the hospital in 1999 after being sent there to recover from a hip operation, said the news of ACC Downing's retirement had made her "so cross".

"There have been so many delays in getting justice for these people and I just see it as another delay," she added.

"It means someone else has got to get involved and look at the history [of the case]."

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Mr Lane said the change would "not be allowed to disrupt or delay progress with this important work".

"I have also been clear that costs must not be an issue in terms of limiting the appropriate scope and pace of this investigation, and that operational capacity must also be maintained," he added.

He said he had also secured more funds from the Home Office, but did not disclose how much.

Kent Police said a formal handover would be given to Mr Jerome and he would be introduced to relatives at a meeting on 16 July.

Dr Jane Barton was found guilty of serious professional misconduct in 2010 but no prosecutions were brought

The Gosport Independent Review Panel report, published in June 2018, found there was a "disregard for human life" at the hospital and an "institutionalised regime" of prescribing and administering amounts of opiate medication that were not clinically justified.

It found whistleblowers and families were ignored as they attempted to raise concerns about the administration of medication on the wards, which was overseen by Dr Jane Barton.

Dr Barton retired after being found guilty by a medical panel in 2010 of failings in her care of 12 patients at Gosport between 1996 and 1999. However, no prosecutions were brought.

In a statement last year, she said she was a "hard-working doctor" who was "doing her best" for patients in a "very inadequately resourced" part of the NHS.