Woman killed herself after south London hospital neglect, coroner concludes

A woman killed herself after a south London psychiatric unit failed to search her possessions adequately, a coroner has concluded.

Michelle Sparman, a personal trainer and call dispatcher for the Metropolitan police from Battersea, south-west London, died on 28 August 2021 at Kingston hospital, four days after trying to take her own life.

The assistant coroner, Bernard Richmond KC, concluded that Sparman, 48, died of a hypoxic brain injury, determining she had died by “suicide whilst the balance of her mind was disturbed, contributed to by neglect”.

Richmond will subsequently produce a prevention of future deaths report looking at a need for mental health wards to introduce a centralised record of all dangerous items that are on the ward, which he plans to submit to NHS England given its potential national implications.

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Source: The Guardian, 17 November 2025