Girl, 14, left alone at psychiatric ward 'was unlawfully killed'

THE death of a girl left alone in a children's mental health ward by an inexperienced agency worker who used fake ID was yesterday ruled as unlawful killing.

- By Mathilde Grandjean

Ruth Szymankiewicz, 14, was being treated for an eating disorder at privately-run Huntercombe Hospital in Berkshire, an inquest heard.

She had been placed under strict one-to-one observation when, on February 12, 2022, she was left on her own by the member of staff responsible for watching her.

The teenager was able to shut herself in her bedroom at the psychiatric intensive care unit, where she self-harmed.

She died two days later at John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford.

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