Father gets backing of ex-Ombudsman in fight for justice over son’s death

Martin Shipton

A campaigning father who has devoted his life to fighting for justice for his 10 year-old son who died following medical negligence in 1990 has received a powerful message of support from a recently retired Ombudsman.

Will Powell’s son Robbie died of Addison’s disease, a rare illness that stops the adrenal glands pumping vital hormones. Doctors did not act on a suspicion that he had the condition and he did not receive the treatment that would have saved his life.

Six years later the NHS accepted that negligence had occurred at Morriston Hospital, Swansea.

An initial police inquiry said there was no evidence to justify criminal proceedings against doctors they coincidentally employed as police surgeons, but, after pressure from Robbie’s father Will Powell, a reinvestigation of the case by a senior detective from West Midlands Police resulted in a recommendation that 35 possible charges should be brought against five named doctors and a secretary.

Evidence

Evidence had emerged of documents being tampered with, and a secretary confirmed during the inquiry that she had been asked to type a backdated medical referral note which gave a falsely positive impression of the care Robbie received.

In 2003 the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) agreed there was evidence that various doctors had been negligent or grossly negligent and/or involved in forgery and perversion of the course of justice. Yet it concluded that none of them should be prosecuted because too much time had elapsed and that the police had effectively given them immunity from prosecution.

In late 2024 Mr Powell received an apology from the head of the CPS for the historic mishandling of the case. But he is still campaigning for a public inquiry into what he sees as a long-running cover-up, and the imposition of an individual “duty of candour” to everyone working in the public sector, including the NHS.

Letter

In January 2025, in a letter to Secretary of State for Wales Jo Stevens, former Ombudsman Sir Rob Behrens has firmly backed Mr Powell’s case. He stated: “I understand you have kindly agreed to meet Mr Will Powell later this month to discuss the poor treatment of Robbie Powell, his death in 1990 and the subsequent cover-up by a number of public authorities over 35 years.

“I was Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman, a Crown appointment, between 2017 and 2024, and together with my then Welsh counterpart Nick Bennett campaigned for a public inquiry to address the multiple and significant miscarriages of justice which the Powell family experienced from a wide range of public service institutions in the UK.

“In my view, there would be immense value in a public inquiry being held to document and learn from one of the worst examples of avoidable death, service failure, shoddy treatment, maladministration and cover-up that I have come across.

“Mr Powell has devoted his life, since Robbie’s death, to seeking justice for his son, and to ensure there is genuine learning from the catalogue of injustice he and his wife experienced. Against all odds he has kept fighting, with dignity, integrity and restraint, in the face of:

* Serious failures of care leading to Robbie’s death;

* The disappearance of key medical evidence in the aftermath of the death;

* Being patronised and insulted by law officers;

* Litigation and efforts impaired by the absence of a rigorous Duty of Candour in the NHS;

* Documented evidence of corruption in police investigations;

* The Crown Prosecution Service failing to conclude a review of the case between 2014 and 2024;

* The structural disadvantage of raising Welsh-based cases in the UK public administrative processes and empty promises from politicians; and

* A minimalist interpretation of the arcane Guidance for Inquiry Chairs and Secretaries, and sponsored departments, which includes ‘to investigate serious allegations of public concern which require thorough and impartial investigation, and for which ordinary civil or criminal processes may not be adequate or appropriate’.

“I look forward to learning of a meaningful exchange in which Mr Powell is listened to with the respect he deserves, and that his campaign for a public inquiry is finally secured.”

Powerful

Mr Powell and Ms Stevens met in the middle of January, and Ms Stevens has arranged for Mr Powell to meet Alex Davies-Hughes, the MP for Pontypridd and the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Victims in the Ministry of Justice, who is a lead UK Government Minister on the Legal Duty of Candour,

Mr Powell said he looks forward to meeting Ms Davies-Jones and added: “I don’t think there is a more powerful letter that has come out of the Parliamentary Ombudsman’s office regarding a statutory inquiry into a child’s death and a 35 year state cover up.”