Jury in Whitehaven manslaughter trial hears accused husband's 999 call

A recording of the 999-call that was made in January 2021, by 60-year-old Robert Morgan was played to the Carlisle Crown Court jury who are trying the case against him and his wife’s son by another man, 52-year-old David Holyoak.

Both deny the manslaughter “through negligence” of Dorothy Morgan.

The jury of five women and seven men were told earlier this week that Morgan and Holyoak “stood by, allowed and watched” as Mrs Morgan suffered severe physical decline at the Calder Avenue home in Whitehaven she shared with the defendants.

She was admitted to Whitehaven’s West Cumberland Hospital after her husband’s 999 call and medics there found her to be “clinically malnourished” and “severely dehydrated”, the jury heard.

She also had severe pressure sores and gangrenous toes.

The prosecution say that Mrs Morgan’s physical condition by that stage was such that her death several days later had become inevitable.

As he opened the case, prosecutor Iain Simkin KC told the jury the failure to act sooner by Morgan and Holyoak amounts to negligence that “killed Dorothy Morgan.”

They maintain they were simply following her orders to not seek medical help.

The first evidence put before the jury was a recording of Robert Morgan’s 999-call to the ambulance service, made at 9.11am on January 25, 2021.

“I’ve got a problem with my wife,” he told the call-handler.

“She’s literally tried to starve herself to death over the last couple of months. She hasn’t allowed me to get in touch with any help, professionally.”

Morgan told the operator that he had just arrived home his work on nightshift. Describing his wife’s condition, he said: “She looks like something from a death camp. She can’t go on like this.

“She’s not going to see the week out.”

In a second call, he said Dorothy Morgan had refused medical help “for months” and had stopped eating and stopped drinking. “She can barely sit up,” he told the call-handler.  "I can’t go on with this; I’m not supporting her behaviour like this anymore.”

The jury also heard evidence from Rebecca Hodgson, a paramedic who arrived at Mrs Morgan’s home after the 999-call.

She said she arrived at the house to find both Morgan and Holyoak (pictured below) were present, with Mrs Morgan lying on the living room floor after CPR was initiated by people who were in the house.

Ms Hodgson agreed the house was “dirty and covered in belongings.”

The paramedic said Morgan told her he thought his wife was okay but he said he worked in Barrow and so was not there very often.

He said that his wife had suffered from increased confusion and had not wanted to be mobile. Mrs Morgan responded to pain but was not alert, she said.

When the paramedics moved Mrs Morgan, they saw she had pressure sores on her buttocks and thighs. Ms Hodgson said: “The pressure sores were very deep; I could see her bone.”

The trial continues.