THE JURY in the case of two Whitehaven men accused of manslaughter "through negligence" have been sent home for the weekend.

Following two days of deliberations, the jury of seven men and five woman have so far failed to reach verdicts on 61-year-old Robert Christopher Morgan, and 53-year-old David Holyoak. Both deny the manslaughter of 71-year-old Dorothy Morgan.

The prosecution alleges that Mrs Morgan's death resulted from the "negligence" of her husband Robert Morgan, and Holyoak, her son by another man. 

She was admitted to Whitehaven’s West Cumberland Hospital in January, 2021 after Morgan called for an ambulance. She died there several days later.

She was severely dehydrated and emaciated, weighing four and a half stones, the jury heard. Mrs Morgan also had severe pressure sores, sepsis and gangrene. 

In the weeks before her hospitalisation, the court heard, she was living "on a settee" at the family home and was covered in her own faeces and urine. 

Prosecutor Iain Simkin KC had told the jury that by the time Robert Morgan called an ambulance Mrs Morgan’s physical condition was so bad that her death had become and inevitability.

The defendants, who lived with Mrs Morgan in Calder Avenue, Whitehaven, have told the jury she was a strong willed person, who refused to let them get medical help. The jury will resume their deliberations on Monday.