Romford house fire inquest: Rosslyn Wolff's son storms out

Gary Parkin shouted, “It’s a farce! It’s a farce!” after Ian Wade, assistant coroner for east London, indicated his intention to only hold a limited investigation into the death of mental health patient Rosslyn Wolff.

Mrs Wolff died when her Romford home caught light in January 2022, months after an NHS mental health service had warned she could die in a house fire.

Nonetheless, Mr Wade said: "I do not consider that this is an inquest which should look at the wider circumstances."

His decision means council and NHS workers who knew Rosslyn for years and were involved in decisions about her care will not be called as witnesses.

The case had only just returned to the Walthamstow court after Mr Parkin challenged Mr Wade’s previous refusal in the High Court.

Gary Parkin took his bid for a jury inquest into his mother Rosslyn Wolff's death all the way to the High Court, but he was unsuccessful (Image: Charles Thomson)

Both Havering Council and mental health trust North East London NHS Foundation Trust (NELFT) have admitted failings in Mrs Wolff’s care, but have spent almost two years fighting to block a jury inquest investigating their conduct. 

In 2022, Mr Wade accepted the bodies' arguments that failings in Mrs Wolff's care were “personal”, not “systemic”.  

In March, High Court judge Mrs Justice Collins Rice ruled Mrs Wolff’s death had been “avoidable”.

However, she said the risk to her life had not been not so great that it was the duty of the state to prevent it. She upheld Mr Wade’s refusal of a jury inquest.

On Friday, Mr Wade rejected new arguments from Mr Parkin's barrister and again refused a jury inquest.

Mr Parkin described the inquest process as a “whitewash”.

Former paralegal Rosslyn Wolff, 74, was found dead after a fire broke out at her home in Myrtle Road, Harold Hill. A High Court judge ruled her death was 'avoidable' - but the inquest process continues (Image: Gary Parkin)

Background

One-time paralegal Mrs Wolff died, aged 74, in a fire at her home in Myrtle Road, Harold Hill, on January 11, 2022.

Investigators concluded it was caused by a cigarette.

At East London Coroner’s Court in spring 2022, Mrs Wolff’s son and her sister expressed concern that her death had been avoidable.

They claimed her mental health had deteriorated so much that she had lived in squalor, surrounded by mouldy dog faeces and huge piles of rubbish, and refused all offers of help.

They handed shocking photos of her living conditions to the court as evidence.

After Mrs Wolff rebuffed relatives' attempts to help her, they said, they repeatedly asked the council and NHS to intervene - but the authorities kept saying Mrs Wolff had mental capacity, so they could not force help upon her.

Shocking photos given to the coroner's court - and the Romford Recorder - showed Mrs Wolff's home was filled with mouldy dog faeces (Image: Gary Parkin)

Known Risk

Relatives argued that Mrs Wolff’s living conditions alone proved she was incapable of making reasonable decisions about her own welfare.

Police even took away Mrs Wolff's dog due to the terrible conditions, yet she was left to continue living in squalor.

In the final year of her life, she was twice hospitalised after going missing and being found in a confused state by police.

But in October 2021, she was again deemed to have capacity and sent back to her squalid home - even after NELFT wrote that the conditions meant she was at risk of a house fire.

Then, on December 10, 2021, a Havering social worker noted the continuing fire risk and said her mental capacity should be reassessed, as the conditions “may lead to her untimely death”.

Nobody ever visited Mrs Wolff to carry out the assessment.

Rosslyn Wolff died in a house fire at her home in Myrtle Road, Harold Hill, in January 2022 (Image: Gary Parkin)

New argument

After reading the High Court judgment in March, barrister Ben McCormack, of Garden Court North chambers in Manchester, took on Mr Parkin’s case pro bono.

On Friday, he disputed Mrs Justice Collins Rice's assessment that there was no identifiable action the authorities should have taken to prevent Mrs Wolff's death.

He argued that they should have applied to the Court of Protection for permission to intervene.

He also disputed Mrs Justice Collins Rice's description of Mrs Wolff as a woman of confirmed capacity and psychologically sound mind.

”We say it is inarguable that the public authorities saw Mrs Wolff as being an adult who was vulnerable to harm,” he said.

Mrs Wolff's capacity “was absolutely, unquestionably in doubt,” he added.

"The professionals working with her realised that there were decisions - properly realised, correctly realised - that there were decisions that they needed to scrutinise in more detail… There were numerous examples.”

At East London Coroner's Court in Walthamstow, assistant coroner Ian Wade ruled on Friday (June 28) that he would not hold a jury inquest into the death of Romford woman Rosslyn Wolff (Image: Charles Thomson)

But Mr Wade was unmoved.

"It seems to me that I am entitled to be more impressed by a High Court judge's finding than others have been," he remarked. 

After Mr Parkin stormed out, Mr Wade told Mr McCormack: ”I’m acutely conscious of how overwhelmed he is by the death of his mother, by how desperately he feels about the whole thing, and I’m very, very conscious that he passionately and sincerely does not accept some of the views I have expressed and decisions I have made.

”It’s absolutely his right and I respect his position on this. So I hope that Mr Parkin is prepared to go on engaging with the coronial process.”

The inquest is likely to take place in January 2025, but the date has not yet been fixed.