A HEALTH care assistant who admitted lying about the circumstances leading up to the death of a patient has appeared at Bolton Crown Court for sentencing.

Deborah Howard, 48, had pleaded guilty to a charge of perverting the course of justice by providing false statements to the coroner concerning the death of 23-year-old mental health patient Stephanie Mullineaux, who died on February 9, 2016, a day after she was found collapsed on the floor of a toilet cubicle at Leigh Infirmary.

Howard’s prosecution arose when in January 2017, she told her manager that she and four other members of staff had made false statements about the death of Miss Mullineaux, who she claimed had been left for several minutes after she was first discovered.

Matthew Corbett-Jones, prosecuting, told the court how Miss Mullineux had a history of self harm and attempted suicide and was being treated as an inpatient in the Cavendish Unit at the Infirmary.

The court heard how at 2pm on February 8, Howard and another member of staff found her injured in a locked toilet cubicle but after raising the alarm, it was claimed the two women were told by a nurse to return to their normal duties.

In June this year, the four other members of staff were found not guilty of wilful neglect following the collapse of a trial in which Howard, who pleaded guilty to the lesser charge, gave evidence.

Patrick Williamson, defending, said Howard, a mother-of-four, should receive credit for assisting the police. He added she had lost her job as a result of the incident and now suffered from depression and was struggling to find work.

Handing Howard, of Bexhill Drive, Leigh, a 12 month community order with 200 hours unpaid work, Judge Richard Gioserano, said her evidence at the trial was “motivated by your desire to play down your own culpability”.

He added: “You had a duty to tell the truth and you breached that duty.”