Abigail Watts

Abigail Watts died in early August 1995, five days after a tracheotomy tube was removed from her mouth in hospital in late July 1995. The removal of the tube caused irreversible brain damage.

Her mother was tried for her murder and convicted of manslaughter but her conviction was quashed after it was found to be unsafe.

Abigail Watts had been born with a rare skull deformity called clover leaf syndrome, which had left her brain-damaged, deformed, partially-sighted, deaf and unable to breathe or feed without help.

The police said that they were working on the theory that her death was a mercy killing.

Her mother had been with her at the time and had alerted the hospital staff to what had happened but Abigail Watts  suffered a cardiac arrest soon after and died.

Abigail Watts's mother denied interfering with the tube.

She blamed a mischievous child. Her defence noted that it was a possibility that a visitor to the hospital had seen Abigail Watts and had been so distressed by what they had seen that they formed a plan to remove her tube and allow her to die.

It was also noted that the  tube could have become disconnected accidentally.

Abigail Watts's mother was initially tried for murder but convicted of manslaughter and given an 18-month jail sentence, suspended for two years. however, she appealed on the grounds that the judge had given the jury an inadequate direction on the issue of manslaughter.

Abigail Watts had been at the Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital in Pendlebury at the time in Liebert ward, and it was noted that there had been about 50 people in the ward around the time the tube came out, and that they were all questioned by the police, with their statements taken.

There had been about 20 seriously ill children in the ward at the time, which was divided into glass-partitioned cubicles.

Following her death the police said that they were keeping an open mind regarding her death, stating that there were a number of scenarios for how it could have happened.

It was heard that the hospital used a bleep system that sounded an alarm when it detected any breathing difficulties and that they would be examining it to check that it was connected to the nursing station. The system was described as having been totally failsafe, tamper-proof and foolproof.

Nurses were alerted to the incident however when they heard Abigail Watts's mother crying out hysterically and when they went to look they found Abigail Watts's tracheotomy tube had become detached from her throat and was lying beside her in her cot. The removal of the tracheotomy tube led to Abigail Watts suffering a respiratory failure that led to cardiac arrest.

When the police were asked whether their inquiry would become a murder inquiry, they replied:

Abigail Watts's mother was tried at Manchester Crown Court on Thursday 18 September 1997. When she was convicted of manslaughter, she screamed out from the dock:

At her appeal on 18 May 1998, it was heard that the judge had failed to provide direction on gross negligence manslaughter. The defence also noted that there was a real possibility that the tube had been removed by an unknown third party, as well as the possibility that someone might have undone the tapes attaching it and that it might have worked itself loose.

When the judges returned their verdict, they noted that the trial judge had deprived Abigail Watts's mother the opportunity of a complete acquittal by failing to direct the jury on the issue of manslaughter through gross negligence, by only directing the jury on the issue of manslaughter through an unlawful act. The judges however, noted, that had he done so, the jury might still have returned a verdict of manslaughter, but that they could not be sure of that, and as such the conviction had to be regarded as unsafe and her conviction was quashed.

Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital as it was in 1995 closed in June 2009 and the main building converted to housing and the other parts demolished and replaced with new build housing.