A 14-year-old girl who should have been under constant supervision at a psychiatric hospital has died after a 'care worker', who used a fake ID to get the job, left her alone before fleeing to Ghana, an inquest has heard.
Ruth Szymankiewicz, from Salisbury, Wiltshire, had an eating disorder and was a patient at Huntercombe Hospital's Thames ward, a psychiatric intensive care unit (PICU) in Maidenhead, since October 2021.
She had been placed under strict one-to-one supervision following a self-harming incident 10 days before her death, a jury inquest held at Buckinghamshire Coroner's Court heard on Monday.
However, on February 12, 2022, the member of staff responsible for watching her - a man then known as Ebo Acheampong - failed to maintain the constant supervision plan, the court was told.
He left Ruth unaccompanied for around 15 minutes and she was left to walk around the hospital and to her room, assistant coroner Ian Wade KC said.
