A 28-year-old autistic man, Masjid Akhtar, was found floating face-down in the King's Mill Reservoir, Nottinghamshire, on 10th September 2012. A coroner has ruled that his carer, Nikki Deaney, was allegedly “distracted” using her phone to message a man she had met on a dating site.
Akhtar was on an activity trip with other patients from Springwood Day Centre, which cares for people with autism and learning difficulties.
An inquest heard that Deaney had spent most of the trip on her mobile phone, instead of taking care of him.
Assistant Coroner for Nottinghamshire, Andrew McNamara said, “The death resulted from the failure of one-to-one care when the carer became distracted using her mobile phone.”
