| Flowers in Gods Garden
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03/07/99
- No pay-out to murdered girl's mother
Clare Dyer, Legal Correspondent
Guardian
A mother who became a "psychological wreck"
after her four-year-old daughter was abducted, murdered
and mutilated lost her battle for compensation at the
court of appeal yesterday.
Beverley Palmer sued Tees health authority and Hartlepool
and East Durham NHS trust for £200,000 damages,
claiming they were negligent in releasing Shaun Armstrong
from hospital when they should have known he was a danger
to children.
Armstrong, 37, seized Rosie after she bought a lolly
from a van outside her Hartlepool home in June 1994.
He was jailed for life for her murder. But three appeal
court judges yesterday upheld a high court ruling striking
out Mrs Palmer's claim.
The judges held that the health authorities owed no
duty of care to Rosie or her mother because they could
not have foreseen that she was at risk. The attack and
murder took place at Armstrong's home and Mrs Palmer,
40, was not allowed to see the body until three days
later.
Mrs Palmer's life disintegrated after her daughter's
death. Her second marriage broke up, she lost the care
of her other child, and at one point she was "sectioned"-
detained compulsorily - under the mental health act.
She had held down a job as a midwife but as a result
of the killing she developed post-traumatic stress disorder.
Her counsel, Robert Sherman, had told the three appeal
judges that the effect of the murder was to leave her
with a severe psychiatric disorder, the consequences
of which had been catastrophic.
Armstrong, who was known to have psychiatric problems
and had threatened to kill children, was released from
Hartlepool general hospital in Cleveland and rehoused
near Rosie's family in Hartlepool in 1993.
Lord Justice Stuart-Smith, giving judgment, said he
upheld the high court judge's ruling that there was
no connection between the health authority or the hospital
and Rosie. Armstrong had a history of childhood sexual
abuse by his mother and neglect by the authorities charged
with his protection and care.
At the age of 16 he had been diagnosed as a very disturbed
boy but no action had been taken, said Lord Justice
Stuart-Smith. Armstrong admitted during a hospital stay
in June 1993 that he had sexual feelings towards children
and warned that a child would be murdered after his
discharge.
Mrs Palmer had claimed that the health authorities had
"failed to diagnose that there was a risk of Armstrong
committing serious sexual offences against children".
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