The Priory clinic owners face criminal charge after death of patient

The owners of The Priory clinic are facing a criminal charge over the death of a 21-year-old woman who killed herself during a stay on one of the wards.

Francesca Whyatt, 21, died in hospital in September 2013, three days after she had been found unconscious at the famous Priory clinic in Roehampton, southwest London.

She had suffered health difficulties since the age of 15 and was initially admitted for treatment at a mental health ward near to her family home in Knutsford, Cheshire.

But Ms Whyatt was transferred for more specialist care at The Priory in March 2013, six months before her death.

Priory Healthcare Limited, the owners of the clinic which has treated the likes of Kate Moss, Pete Doherty, and Michael Barrymore, has now been charged with a health and safety violation over Ms Whyatt’s death.

The company, which has its offices in Hammersmith, is said to have “failed to conduct…the provision of in-patient psychiatric treatment in such a way as to ensure, so far as was reasonably practicable, that persons not in its employment who may have been affected thereby, including Francesca Whyatt, were not thereby exposed to risks to their health and safety, namely the risk of suicidal and non-suicidal self-injury.”

The firm will face the charge for the first time at a hearing at Westminster magistrates court on Wednesday.

The alleged failure is said to have taken place on a specialist unit for treating personality disorders known as Emerald Ward, on September 25, 2013.

This is the day that Ms Whyatt was found unconscious in a lounge on the top floor, after an attempt to hang herself.

Attempts at resuscitation were made and she was rushed to Kingston Hospital, but died three days later.

Priory Healthcare has not yet responded to the criminal charge and is expected to enter a plea in court on Wednesday.