An Assembly Member has called for a Welsh Government Statement regarding a healthcare worker convicted of murder last week, who was previously questioned over allegations of abusing vulnerable patients.
Kris Wade, 37, is serving at least 21 years after admitting killing Christine James, 65, at her Cardiff Bay flat.
Police investigated the Abertawe Bro Morgannwg (ABMU) Health Board support worker after allegations were made by patients with learning difficulties in 2012 and 2013, but dropped the case on the advice of the Crown Prosecution Service.
Speaking out about the case last week, Mark Isherwood, AM for North Wales and a Member of the Cross Party Group on Disability, said it is important to understand what credibility was given to the patients' claims against Wade.
Raising the matter in this week’s Business Statement in the Assembly he emphasised the need for an inquiry into this, which goes beyond the Health Board and Local Authority.
He said: “I endorse Bethan Jenkins’s call regarding the Kris Wade case, particularly given that the murder and conviction followed reports by people with learning difficulties when in care that they had been sexually abused.
“I would argue, and I hope you would agree, that any inquiry needs to go beyond the Health Board, beyond the Local Authority, and raise questions directly with the police and the Crown Prosecution Service over the degree to which credibility was given to the witnesses when interviewed, the degree to which the interviewers had disability awareness training, and the degree to which they even understood the basics of the social model of disability, where people are disabled by the barriers put in their way. Now, we can’t say or comment, obviously, on what they might have said and how that might have been interpreted, because we don’t have that evidence, but it does raise serious questions that do fall within the concerns and remit of the Welsh Government, at least as a facilitator, if not a participant in the inquiry that will go forward.“
Leader of the House Jane Hutt was dismissive in her response and insisted that it is a matter for ABM University Health Board to deal with and resolve.
ENDS