Page 36
Legal flap ends
with cockerel
ruling the roost
A COCKEREL owner has won a legal
battle against neighbours who
complained about the bird’s early-
morning crowing.
Jean-Louis Biron, a retired farmer,
and his wife Joelle, went to court
complaining that they were being
woken at 4am by cockerel Mau-
rice’s shrill crowing.
But owner Corinne Fesseau said
that nobody had ever complained
about the bird until the couple
bought a holiday home next door.
A court official went to investi-
gate the claims in Saint-Pierre
d’Oleron, on the island of Oleron in
the Bay of Biscay.
However, the case was dismissed
after the official reported that the
pet only crowed ‘intermittently’
between 6.30am and 7am, not
from 4am, and that the noise was
‘merely audible’ but not loud if the
couple closed their windows.Coroner hits
out at sepsis
doctors af ter
girl, f ive, died
that included a high temperature,
red rash, and extreme lethargy.
Jurors were told that although
Ava was displaying at least two
‘red flags’ suggesting she had sep-
sis, doctors failed to follow clini-
cal guidelines intended to help
detect the illness.
Instead she was diagnosed with a
‘simple viral illness’ and sent home
- a decision which the inquest jury
decided, along with other failings,
contributed to her death.
Ava – who was born with Down’s
Syndrome – was taken back to
hospital the following day as her
condition worsened but then died
on December 15.
Following the jury’s narrative
conclusion at Nottingham Coro-
ner’s Court, Miss Bower said she
had ‘significant concerns’ that
doctors appeared to be ignoring
the guidelines, and announced
she would be setting up a public
hearing with the hospital trust’s
medical director. She said: ‘Sepsisis not a new condition. The guide-
lines have been in place nationally
for many years.
‘They are designed to weed out
patients just like Ava who are at
increased risk.
‘Doctors appear to be deciding
whether they are applying them
to patients or not, and that does
give me cause for concern.’
The court heard Ava was initially
given paracetamol and ibuprofen
before being discharged – with hermother told she was suffering
from a ‘virus that’s going around’.
Consultant David Shearn, who
saw Ava when she was first admit-
ted, said he had not followed the
‘Sepsis Six’ pathway, a series of
interventions designed to be initi-
ated immediately on diagnosis or
suspicion of sepsis.
He accepted ‘earlier treatment
may have improved her chances of
survival’ and that following the
Sepsis Six would have been ‘bestpractice’. The Daily Mail has led
the campaign to improve sepsis
care since 2016.
The NHS website says parents
should call 999 or go to A&E if
their child has any of the following
symptoms: mottled or bluish skin,
lips or tongue; extreme lethargy; a
rash that does not fade when
pressed; difficulty breathing;
weak, abnormally high-pitched
crying; appearing uninterested in
their surroundings and feeding.Tragic: Ava Macfarlane had ‘red flag’ symptomsBy Andy Dolan
A CORONER said she has ‘sig-
nificant’ fears that doctors are
ignoring guidance on sepsis after
a five-year-old girl died after
being sent home from hospital.
Laurinda Bower highlighted her con-
cerns after hearing how Ava Macfar-
lane’s symptoms were initially played
down by medics.
She was taken to Nottingham’s Queen’s
Medical Centre by her family on Decem-
ber 13, 2017. Her parents, Lesley Gearing
and Adam Macfarlane, from Sherwood,
Nottingham, said she was ‘gasping for
breath’ and had developed symptoms
Daily Mail ReporterFemale child abuser
to go free this month
Briton stashed
£550m of drugs
under seaweed
A BRITISH man and his companion
tried to stash a £550million drug
haul under seaweed after their
yacht ran aground on a desert
island, police said yesterday.
Graham Kurt Palmer, 34, and 51-
year-old Frenchman Antoine
Dicenta allegedly sailed across the
Indian Ocean towards Australia
with more than a ton of cocaine
and ecstasy on board the 50ft boat
- before crashing into a reef near
Stick Island, 50 miles off the main-
land town of Geraldton.
Police said the pair then ferried
the drugs on a rubber dinghy to an
island three miles away where they
were later arrested and charged
with importing a commercial quan-
tity of a border controlled drug.
Police Commissioner Chris Dawson
praised local fisherman who raised
the alarm after spotting the
stranded yacht. The pair will appear
in court later this month.
BRITAIN’S worst female
paedophile will be released
from prison by the end of
this month, it has been
confirmed.
Former nursery worker
Vanessa George, 49, was locked
up for a minimum of seven years
in 2009 after she sexually abused
babies and toddlers.
But despite outrage from her
victims and authorities, a parole
board ordered her release in
July this year.
Efforts to keep her in prison
have now been exhausted,
according to local MP Luke Pol-
lard. She is due to be freed
before the end of the month.
George, who had worked at
the Little Ted’s nursery in Ply-
mouth, photographed herselfabusing dozens of babies and
toddlers and sent the sickening
images to fellow perverts.
During her sentencing at Bris-
tol Crown Court, Mr Justice
Royce stressed to parents that
while he was passing an indeter-
minate sentence ‘it is, in effect, a
life sentence’. Despite this, fol-lowing hearings held this year,
the parole board directed the
release of George.
A spokesman for the parole
board said their decisions were
‘solely focused on whether a
prisoner would represent a sig-
nificant risk to the public after
release’. But Mr Pollard said: ‘It
is completely unacceptable that
she can be released while still
refusing to reveal the names of
the children she abused.’
He added that many parents
and carers of victims ‘felt no
wider views were taken on
board, there was no guidance
to take them through the proc-
ess of raising their concerns at a
parole board hearing’.
But justice minister Lucy
Frazer said the probation serv-
ice had written to 211 ‘inter-
ested parties’ following George’s
sentence offering contact.END THE SEPSIS
SCANDAL
Vile: Vanessa George(^) V1 Daily Mail, Friday, September 6, 2019