Tracy Burrows is accused of failing to check on her patient Julie Cleworth (Picture: Getty; Lynda Roughley)

A disabled woman who needed help to eat, clothe and feed herself died from starvation because a care worker failed to check on her, a court has heard.

Julie Cleworth, 43, died after being left on her own for three days with ‘no access to food, water or medication’.

Liverpool crown court heard that instead of visiting her, home care assistant Tracy Burrows, 56, sat outside Julie’s bungalow in her car for 20 seconds.

She then allegedly told her trainee companion the woman was out and went to visit her own mother instead.


Prosecutors claim Burrows lied to her boss, saying that she had looked through Julie’s home in St Helens, Merseyside and found no one there.



As a result the boss assumed Burrows’ patient was back in hospital and her care package was cancelled.

Deborah Gould, prosecuting, told the court: ‘Home carers stopped visiting the property completely, despite the fact that Julie was in effect trapped inside completely immobile.’

Burrows allegedly visited her own mother during time she should have been with her patient (Picture: Lynda Roughley)

Burrow’s ‘lie’ was eventually discovered when the hospital called the care providers, Unite Healthcare, asking how she was getting to hospital for a check-up.

The care firm then learnt that she had been discharged from hospital as originally planned four days earlier and the duty manager went straight round to her home but ‘she arrived too late’ and Julie was found dead in her bedroom.

The prosecutor added: ‘During the three and a half days that Julie Cleworth had been left in her home, she had had no access to food, water or medication.’

A post mortem examination found Julie had developed ketoacidosis, in which toxins build up in the blood stream as a result of starvation.

Miss Gould told the court prosecutors would be arguing ‘the clear cause of her death was neglect and lack of care’.

She said: ‘Had [Burrows] taken the trouble to walk the few metres from her car to the front door of Julie’s bungalow and opened the door, the defendant would have known that Julie was at home and she would have received the care which she relied upon to survive.

‘It was, the Crown says, a breach of duty which was so negligent as to be criminal.’

Burrows, of St Helens, Merseyside, denies manslaughter and an alternative charge of wilful neglect.

Burrows denied manslaughter at Liverpool Crown Court (Picture: Getty)

Julie suffered a number of strokes in 2013 that left her unable to stand without the assistance of two carers, the court heard.

She also could not walk, had learning difficulties and mental health issues.

Jurors heard that carers would call in on her five times a day for periods ranging from 15 minutes to an hour.

Miss Gould said: ‘She was as helpless as a baby and utterly dependent on others to care for her and meet her day to day needs.’

Julie was admitted to Whiston Hospital on February 5, 2017, with a mild infection which could be treated with antibiotics.



She was sent home on the afternoon of February 9, with the hospital notfiying Unite Healthcare.

The company instructed Burrows and a probationary care assistant to visit her at 7pm that day to resume delivery of the pre-existing care package.

But jurors were told that shortly before 7pm Burrows – who had cared for Julie for years – told the care assistant Julie was not at home before she spent the 30 minute care visit time with her own mother, who lived nearby.

In her police interview Burrows insisted she had gone into Julie’s home that night, although she admitted she lied to bosses when she told them she had checked every room.

She claimed she did not check the bedroom as Julie never used it and denied seeing a light from the room.

The case continues.

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