'We got away with it': Official brags about avoiding media, emails journo by mistake

Doreen Livermore, pictured with her great-grandson Michael. Photo / Supplied

A manager from Britain's National Health Service is in hot water after mistakenly emailing a journalist and bragging about avoiding media attention following a negative report into the death of a dementia patient.

Mark Prentice, communications manager for the Norfolk and Suffolk Foundation Trust, was trying to email the message to colleagues but accidentally sent it to a journalist as well.

He was gloating about how media attention on the death of Monty Python star Terry Jones had enabled the trust to avoid scrutiny over a report that criticised them for the death of dementia sufferer Doreen Livermore, 88, who was attacked by another dementia patient in 2017.

Prentice wrote: "We seem to have got away [again] with the Adult Safeguarding Review.

"I think we may have been saved by the death of Terry Jones.

"Yet again… we emerged virtually unscathed."

The investigation has found that Livermore's family made repeated complaints to the care home and the Norfolk County Council in the lead up to her death, detailing how the man who eventually attacked her had been assaulting other residents.

Livermore's son Roy told the Eastern Daily Press: "The fact they are talking about 'getting away' with it in relation to the death of my mother is absolutely disgusting. It begs the question, what do they feel they got away with?"

The Norfolk and Suffolk Foundation Trust's chief executive Jonathan Warren said: "We are undertaking an investigation regarding the inappropriate comments made about the sad death of Doreen Livermore by a member of our staff.

"We take this very seriously and will be contacting the family of Mrs Livermore to give them our sincere apologies and offer them our support."