Pair charged with starving woman with Down’s syndrome to death
Two people face charges over the death of a woman with Down’s syndrome after she was found severely emaciated.
Police found the body of 24-year-old Debbie Leitch when they were called by the ambulance service to an address in Garden Terrace, Blackpool, on the evening of August 29, 2019.
A Home Office post-mortem examination gave a cause of death as severe emaciation and neglect with extensive scabies skin infection.
Six people were interviewed as suspects as part of the investigation into Ms Leitch’s death and two people have since been summonsed to appear in court.
Elaine Clarke, 48, from Blackpool, has been summonsed to answer the charge of gross negligence manslaughter.
Robert Bruce, 45, from Leeds, has been summonsed for the offence of allowing or causing the death of a vulnerable adult.
Both are due to appear at Blackpool Magistrates’ Court on April 20.
The other four people were released without charge.
In a statement issued on behalf of Debbie’s family, they described her as a ‘wonderful girl’ who was ‘always happy, and always friendly’.
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