Hotel worker ‘paid with her life’ for failures by police and prison system

The family of a hotel worker killed by a man with psychosis said their daughter ‘paid with her life for lapses in the prison and policing systems’.

Spanish national Marta Elena Vento, 27, was working at the Travelodge in Christchurch Road, Bournemouth, when she was killed in a brutal attack by Stephen Cole on December 9, 2020.

Cole had been freed from prison weeks earlier, where he had attacked four people, including two guards, while on remand between July and October.

An inquest into Marta’s death was told Cole had been prescribed the antipsychotic drug Olanzapine in September 2020 while he was behind bars, which had managed his symptoms.

But Practice Plus Group, the jail’s healthcare provider, admitted they failed to discharge Cole to his GP, and he left prison with just 28 days’ worth of medication which ran out on November 24.

Senior coroner Rachael Griffin ruled this led to a relapse in his psychosis.

She concluded Marta was unlawfully killed by Cole, who was unmedicated at the time due to prison failures to plan his mental health care after his release and police failures to manage him as a registered sex offender.

There had been ‘no continuity of care’ after Cole left prison, which was an ‘arguable system failure’, Ms Griffin said.

As a registered sex offender, Cole’s risk was supposed to be managed by Dorset Police, following national guidance.

The coroner ruled there was incomplete information gathering by police to identify, manage and assess the risks Cole posed in the time between his release from prison and Marta’s death, and that this was ‘an arguable breach of systemic duty’ by Dorset Police.

In a statement read out by the family’s lawyer Benjamin Burrows after the inquest, they said: ‘The conclusion confirms what we have suspected in the four long years since our dear Marta was torn from our lives.

‘It is overwhelmingly hard for us to understand how the English prison health system could allow someone like Stephen Cole, who was so clearly unwell, to be released without a care plan and the ongoing medication he needed. It is equally hard for us to understand why the English police did not make themselves fully aware of the danger Cole posed when he stayed at the Travelodge on that night.

‘Our daughter paid with her life for lapses in the English prison and policing systems. The cost to our family can never be measured. Without our Marta, our lives will never be the same.’

Marta, described as ‘gentle natured, yet strong and tenacious’ by her family, had been living in Bournemouth where she had adopted a kitten and, after a few months of unemployment during the pandemic, took a job at the Travelodge, which was just across the street from her home.

The inquest, held over 21 days at Bournemouth Coroner’s Court, heard Cole was a resident at the Travelodge at the time.

CCTV from the early hours of the morning recorded Cole kicking and punching Marta after she had been sorting leaflets in a display near the door.

Detective Inspector Mark Jenkins of Dorset Police said Cole arrived in the bar area of the hotel at 5.12am and began to attack her.

Cole left at 5.58am and went to Bournemouth police station later that morning where he told the receptionist he had just killed someone.

Ms Griffin confirmed she will be writing a prevention of future deaths report to the prison service, NHS England, the College of Policing, the National Police Chiefs’ Council and NHS Dorset to address concerns raised in the inquest.

The coroner spoke in Spanish to offer her condolences to Marta’s family and said: ‘No-one in this room can imagine what you have suffered.

‘Marta was and remains in our memory a bright, strong and brave young woman who lived her life to the fullest.

‘I regret from the depths of my heart your loss and the suffering experienced since Marta left us.’

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

For more stories like this, check our news page.