North London care home chief to be sentenced over death

The deputy manager of a north London care home where a young resident choked to death on a ham sandwich will be sentenced for breaching her health and safety duty.

Patience Etchu-Abangma, 53, from Enfield, north London, had left 26-year-old Jesse Moores with two agency care workers while she went off to do her secret second job.

While she was out, Mr Moores, from Friern Barnet, North London, was found lying motionless in his room at The Chine care home in Enfield.

A piece of sandwich the size of a golf ball was later found stuck in his throat.

Etchu-Abangma said she was not meant to be on duty at the care home at the time of the incident on November 3 2005, as she was on the rota to do a late shift.

She had come in because the home was short-staffed, she said, but then left again to go to the school in Walthamstow where she had another job, of which she had not informed her employer.

A jury at Wood Green Crown Court, north London, found in February that Etchu-Abangma had failed in her health and safety duty towards Mr Moores.

Care home manager Gideon Attram, 49, of Shepherds Bush, west London, who was on trial for the same offence, was found not guilty. Mr Moores was autistic, hyperactive, suffered from Tourette’s Syndrome and had a history of choking.

Robinia, the company that ran The Chine, pleaded guilty to three counts of failing to comply with its health and safety duty. The care home was closed down after the tragedy.

Monday’s sentencing will take place at Wood Green Crown Court.