Family of man who died in care of Bupa home plan to sue firm

BY TOBY PORTER
toby@slpmedia.co.uk

The family of a pensioner who died when his cigarette set fire to his clothes and skin want to sue the firm that was supposed to be looking after him.

The children and ex-wife of Cedric Skyers only found out last week that Manley Court in John Williams Close in Brockley had been fined over his death.

The care home’s owner, Bupa, had to pay out a record £1million after failing to insure he was protected against his skin cream catching fire while he was smoking.

He was engulfed in flames and died of 50 per cent burns while being rushed to King’s College Hospital in March 2016.

His former wife, Mary, said: “Cedric was in a home where you’re supposed to be looked after, protected and safe. For him to die that way, being engulfed in flames – that was terrible. That was not right.

“He was still on his way to hospital when the police picked us up. But then told us, there in the car, that he had died. I broke down. It still hurts me now, years later. No one deserves to die like that. They should have known he was in danger because of the burn holes on his clothes.”

His son, David, head of applications in the information department at University College London, said: “No amount of money can bring us peace about what happened. It was wrong. We would like some input into how the Bupa fine is spent – because otherwise it will just be swallowed up in Government coffers.

“We would also like to do a memorial to our dad. “We want to explore whether Bupa and Lewisham council – who were supposed to care for him – can be charged for corporate manslaughter. “They failed our father in a very serious way and it left us devastated.”

The family has asked for a meeting with the London Fire Brigade to discuss what happens next.

Cedric, born in March 1947 in Kingston, Jamaica, had a tough childhood because his mother died in childbirth.

He came to the UK in the 1960s in search of a better life, still in his teens, and lived with his aunt, Florence Brown.

A big jazz and reggae fan, he was a bar manager at Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club for up to 10 years.

He also worked in a Coca Cola factory in Loampit Vale, Lewisham and helped build the Brockley Rise estate in Forest Hill where he would eventually end up living, before being moved to Manley Court 15 years ago.

David added: “He was a very intelligent man and a smooth talker – a bit of a ladies’ man, which my mum wasn’t too pleased about. “Even in the nursing home he was very close to the staff and was the life and soul of the party. He wasn’t the perfect father or husband – but one of his flaws was supporting Tottenham Hotspur when his boys were Arsenal fans.”

Cedric, nicknamed “handsome” by his ex-wife, is survived by four children, four grandchildren and one great grandchild.

A spokesman for the Met said: “We were made aware of the incident at the time but at the pre-inquest review it was decided that the London Fire Brigade would take primacy for any prosecution.

“There was no further police action, other than preparing a report for the coroner, as is the case with all sudden deaths.”

A Lewisham council spokeswoman said: “This is a sad case and if there is an investigation, we will assist the Met, should they request it.”

Bupa was fined £937,500 for fire safety failings and ordered to pay £104,000 in prosecution costs over Cedric’s death.

Operations director for Manley Court care home, Donald Day, said: “Our thoughts and condolences are with Mr Skyers’ family.

“Following this tragic accident in 2016 we took immediate action across all our care homes to prevent it from happening again.

We take fire safety extremely seriously and have in place detailed risk assessments for all our residents that smoke, increased supervision and we ensure our teams are regularly trained in fire safety measures.

The well-being of residents in our care is always our priority and we are committed to keeping everyone in our homes safe.”

Bupa held an internal investigation in 2016 and implemented a safety action plan across its homes with a Smoking Risk Assessment and staff training on self-harm, equipment, resident immobility, paraffin based emollient creams and smoking aprons.