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An elderly couple have been arrested on suspicion of killing their daughter   who died after two decades battling an extreme form of Obsessive Compulsive   Disorder. 

Ken and Marion Hancox, who are both in ill health, have spent eight months   under suspicion of the manslaughter of their housebound daughter, Samantha,   a former law student.
The 40-year-old developed a crippling phobia of germs which forced her to   shower up to 20 hours a day and left her incapable of cooking for herself.
She developed the disorder as a student and had needed constant care from her   parents ever since.  By the time of her death in May last year, she had become effectively   housebound, had gone off her food and developed a skin condition.
Mr Hancox, 76, who suffers from cancer, and his wife, 77, who is disabled,   claim they were offered no help from local social services and even wrote to   the Prime Minister complaining that it felt like they were living in the   β€œstone age”.
When they found their daughter dead in an armchair at their home in Tipton,   West Midlands, they initially thought she had slipped into a coma after   refusing to eat.
But a post mortem examination showed that she had died from dehydration and   bed sores.
The couple were arrested on suspicion of manslaughter shortly afterwards.
They were fingerprinted, photographed and questioned for up to nine hours and   have spent the last eight months on bail, which has been repeatedly extended.

With Mrs Hancox, barely able to walk, the task of caring for their daughter   fell largely on Mr Hancox’s shoulders.

When was admitted to hospital for a prostate operation last year she went off   her food.

"When I came out of hospital I should have been resting, I had a disabled   wife and a sick daughter and no one gave us any help," he said 

"We couldn't cope but no one came to help us."

Sandwell Council's cabinet member for adult social care, Linda Horton, said: "We   cannot make any comment at this stage as there is still an ongoing police investigation."  

Full story
What exactly do Social Services do when they are asked for help?  Its obvious that Tony Blair would do nothing, that was his job, but surely Social Services would wonder how this elderly and infirm couple were managing to cope.  I daresay they will have an inquiry and 'lessons will be learned' but it is not the same as actually doing something.  And why the boys in blue think they should pursue the parents when they must realise they have no chance of a conviction is another mystery.

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What it says in the full story is that:

β€œAll these psychiatrists kept coming and all they did was assess her and went away. We never heard anything again ... We kept getting told there was no one to help her. I made official complaints chief's I even wrote to Tony Blair when he was Prime Minister. "

 So when Samantha was alive he was PM.  Does that answer your query?

BTW, the 'chief's typo is the Telegraph's, not mine.
Tooth Fairy
These cases can be complex,the parents would not have been privvy to what was discussed between their daughter and her Doctors..even home vists etc.If she said to the  various health folk that visted her,not to discuss it with anyone,they would have to respect that.
It's very difficult to force someone into medical/psychiatric  care if they do not wish it.
kattymieoww
Karma their hands could have been tied,what do you think they could have done ?..forcibly removed her and force fed her,if she had stopped eating.That is illegal now (force feeding)
My uncle died last year aged 74..He had depression and stopped eating,he ended up in hospital loads of times,they put him on a drip etc,and discharged him after a few days.However he still wouldn't eat,he lived on  sherry,he was also diabetic,he was just giving up.Sad as it was,his choice in the end.
kattymieoww
She would have fallen under the remit of the local Mental Health Team rather than social services I would have thought - and I can tell anyone here from bitter personal experience how utterly useless and lousy they are.
They would have put her to the very bottom of their list as she was no danger to anyone other than herself and had people caring for her.
FM
This is very sad that nobody would help this family you would have thought between social services and the daughters doctor she would have been sectioned under the mental health act,the mother and father must be devasted being under suspicion of murdering their own daughter, I am not sure how the police could  possibily prove that they neglected her, they asked for help and they got none
Marguerita
Yeah, I agree with Marge & Veggie.   She should have been sectioned under the Mental Health Act..  as she was endangering her own life.   The social workers or the GP should have got that process in motion...   or, preferably, the GP or Social Workers should have referred her to Mental Health professionals before her condition became so bad that she was a danger to herself, before the need to have her sectioned.
Dirtyprettygirlthing
Someone who used to be an fm here is a manager employing support workers - and she used to say that the majority of support workers only do the job as they are too thick to work anywhere else.
We seem to have a policy in this country of pushing the most unsuitable people into 'care work'  presumably because the sectors of society that they are caring for are either unable or unwilling to complain about how poor they are. I complained about a support worker I was given and was told that if I was well enough to complain then I didn't need a support worker!!
FM

This story as it is written above is incredibly sad however I think we need to be very careful about jumping to conclusions.
First of all social services are right not to comment as making a comment at this stage could jeopardise the whole situation.

Secondly the above story is very one sided when in reality there are two sides to every story.  I'm not saying the above story is in any way incorrect or made up but we should not jump to conclusions based on one view point.  None of us were part of this situation therefore none of us know what actually happened.  It is viable that the parents did reach breaking point and do something regrettable, the police have a duty to their daughter to investifate if this was the case.

Finally this woman was a grown woman maybe she didn't want help from social services, maybe she refused offers of help in which case due to her age her parents would have little say.  It is a devastating situation but I don't think we should judge unless we are in possession of full facts and I believe in cases like this the media are incredibly unhelpful publishing such a story.

P
As I stated before it's difficult to force someone to get help etc.Even folk with serious psychiatric problems etc cannot be forced to take their meds..as in tie them down and inject or whatever.They do have rights,even if it's for their own good.This is  speculation and word of mouth on the parents part etc.This is now an ongoing case and medical documentation etc will now be scrutinised.So we really don't know until it has been investigated what the outcome will be.
However it's a tragic case all round.
kattymieoww
Yeah but katty, surely Blizzie is right. They would have uncovered something by now if things were amiss. The post mortem has been done, clearly there was nowt in that or they would have charged the parents. It would not take long to sort through their financials to see if they had a big insurance policy for example on their daughter.
I really don't like how the police can keep people on bail for ages and ages without charging them. What the hell are the courts playing at to allow them to extend this for another four months. The Police should be hauled into court to explain what is going on imo
FM
Yeah but katty, surely Blizzie is right. They would have uncovered something by now if things were amiss. The post mortem has been done, clearly there was nowt in that or they would have charged the parents. It would not take long to sort through their financials to see if they had a big insurance policy for example on their daughter.


Not necessarily - the article says she died from dehydration and bed sores - what's to say vital resources were not kept from her.  Like I say i'm not saying the parents have done anything wrong but there's always two sides to every story.
P
But how will they be able to prove that in 4 months time if they can't prove it now?

We don't know what evidence they have at the moment.

Good of the authorities to take an interest now the girl is dead. Shame on the lot of them for not stepping in sooner and offering some help to those poor parents.
We don't know that they didn't step in sooner - the above story is purely from the pov of the parents - there is more than one side to this story.
P
This is unbelievably tragic but we do not know the whole story.
Sadly partly due to the Mental Capacity Act of 2005 it is almost impossible to give a straight answer as to whether someone is capable of making decisions for themselves or not because it is such a diverse Act.

This should not be a blame exercise. Here we have 2 elderly people who clearly loved their daughter but were at the end of their tether and being parents could see what she was doing to herself.
However the daughter was obviously deemed to be mentally capable of making her own mind up - even though she was in a weakened condition.
What help could SS have given if she refused everything?
Rarely, if ever are people force fed now and how would that have helped?


We just do not know the whole story and sadly we will probably never know because of patient confidentiality etc.
What is clear however is that prosecuting two sick elderly people will achieve nothing.
FM
What is clear however is that prosecuting two sick elderly people will achieve nothing.

Just imagine if the money spent on investigating the parents and investigating how well social services and other support professionals carried out their functions had actually been spent on helping the family when they she was alive.
If the support services don't have the powers to intervene (which I doubt) perhaps they should ask the government for them.
Tooth Fairy
Just imagine if the money spent on investigating the parents and investigating how well social services and other support professionals carried out their functions had actually been spent on helping the family when they she was alive.
If the support services don't have the powers to intervene (which I doubt) perhaps they should ask the government for them.

But leaving that to one side do the police not have a duty to investigate her death - if a crime has been comitted doesn't she deserve justice?
P
Reference: pretty_p
But leaving that to one side do the police not have a duty to investigate her death - if a crime has been comitted doesn't she deserve justice?
Of course they do, and, if they have evidence of wrongdoing, then they should prosecute.

On the face of it, it appears to me that they have jumped to conclusions, without having any understanding of her condition, made quick arrests and left grieving, sick and elderly parents under suspicion for a year, with no possible chance of finding any evidence of wrongdoing.
Blizz'ard
A couple of points.

Sandwell Council were aware of the situation.  If they weren't they would have said so already.  The fact they were and then allowed the situation to reach the point where the daughter died indicates they did not protect her from herself by ensuring that she received the medical support she needed.  If they had visited the house they must have also been aware of the ages of the parents and their potential age-related infirmity even if they could not predict that the father would suffer from various cancers.
 
I suspect the truth is that the couple wanted to keep their daughter but needed some support which they did not get.  The daughter was reluctant to see support professionals but they had seen her in the past, of that I have no doubt.  Perhaps it suited the support staff to have her kept with her parents as it saved Social Services placing her into the full time care which she must have needed.  Her father has indicated he asked for help but no help came.  If that was untrue I am sure Sandwell Council would have said as much, but they did not.

The police certainly had a duty to ensure that no crime had taken place.  That said they have failed to apply common sense and also have allowed the matter to continue to the point where it is having a detrimental effect on the parents.  They have all the evidence they need and are going to get.  It appears that everyone is sure what she died of - probably dehydration and infections arising from pressure sores.  There is no murder weapon to be found.  There is no motive because if the parents had wanted her out of their lives they could have done it years ago. Much as the police would wish to have a 'serious crime' to solve to enhance their stats this is not going to be it and in reality their cavalier treatment of the parents will probably accelerate their demise.  Will there be another inquiry with lessons learned when they die, still under threat of prosecution for causing their daughter's death by neglect?

The only way we can be confident that justice is done is when it is seen to be done.  If that means bringing publicity where the professionals would not wish it to be then so be it.  It seems likely that all involved would be quite content to allow this to carry on drifting indefinitely.  If it takes a story in the press to concentrate their minds so that they can learn any valuable lessons and allow the parents to live the rest of the lives without the cloud of suspicion, then the press must be allowed to bring this to the attention of the public.

Then perhaps Linda Horton can explain what they would have liked to have done and what they would do differently next time.
FM

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