File of documents relating to death of 10-year-old boy ‘can’t be found’

Martin Shipton

A father who has campaigned for justice since his 10-year-old son died as a result of medical negligence in 1990 is disturbed that a file of documents relating to the case no longer appears to be held in a coroner’s office.

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, 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 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.

Following Robbie’s death in 1990, the then coroner decided there was no need for an inquest because he had been persuaded that the boy had died of natural causes. Fourteen years later an inquest determined that Robbie died of natural causes aggravated by neglect.

In late 2024 Mr Powell received an apology from the head of the CPS for the organisation’s historic mishandling of the case.

Now he has been in correspondence with the office of Swansea and Neath Port Talbot coroner Aled Gruffydd, seeking to find out what enquiries his predecessor JR Morgan had undertaken to ensure that Robbie’s death had been exclusively natural.

A member of Mr Gruffydd’s staff has told Mr Powell that the archive team had tried to find Robbie’s file, but were unable to do so.

Mr Powell has now written to the coroner’s office asking: “To avoid any future misunderstandings can you please confirm that no documentation exists regarding my late son Robbie’s file? If so, please confirm the date that Robbie’s file was destroyed and who authorised the destruction?”

‘Cover up’

Mr Powell said: “I am trying to ensure that lessons have been learned from Robbie’s case. The cover-up began in the coroner’s office 36 years ago when the coroner at the time told me there couldn’t be an inquest because Robbie had definitely died of natural causes. At the time he must have known there were concerns about negligence. I would like to see the contents of the file from that time.

“We know the coroner of the time was wrong, because 14 years later, when an inquest finally took place the verdict included the fact that there was neglect.”

Mr Powell has taken some comfort from the fact that last year Rhun ap Iorwerth, now the First Minister, wrote to Secretary of State Jo Stevens backing the call for a public inquiry into the circumstances surrounding Robbie’s death and the ensuing cover-up.

At the time, Ms Stevens told Mr Powell she didn’t think anything more could be learned from holding a public inquiry.