A senior nurse was left in 'utter disbelief' after an elderly woman in his care bled to death following a violent sexual assault in her hospital bed.
Retired clerical assistant Valerie Kneale, 75, died at Blackpool Victoria Hospital on November 16 2018, four days after she was admitted following a stroke at her home in Poulton-le-Fylde, Lancashire.
The pensioner was said to be 'chatty', lucid and did not appear agitated when her family left her late in the evening of November 12, but were told the following morning of a 'marked deterioration' in her condition.
Mrs Kneale's family stayed at her side after they were called back to the hospital's stroke ward until she died, but none were present in the early hours of November 13.
A post-mortem examination concluded Mrs Kneale died not because of her stroke but due to a 'forcible sexual assault' inflicted at least 48 hours before death', and that happened during her hospital admission.
