Senior South Wales detective ‘tried to warn off maternity unit campaigner’

Martin Shipton

South Wales Police is looking into allegations that one of its senior detectives tried to “warn off” a parent who has been campaigning about failings at a hospital maternity unit.

Rob Channon is the most prominent spokesperson for a group concerned about mothers and babies who have suffered as a result of clinical negligence and poor care at Singleton Hospital’s maternity unit in Swansea.

Gethin, the five-year-old son of Mr Channon and his wife Sian, has been left with severe brain damage following negligence when he was born.

In September 2023 a Healthcare Inspectorate Wales (HIW) inspection report concluded that the safety and wellbeing of mothers and babies could not be guaranteed at the Singleton Hospital unit.

The Welsh Government put the unit under enhanced monitoring in December 2023, but has refused to order an independent public inquiry into the failings, although Swansea Bay University Health Board (SBUHB) has commissioned a review.

However, the handling of the review has itself led to severe criticism from parents like the Channons, and its first Chair stood down.

Warning

Mr Channon has now posted a video to the social media channel X in which he accuses a detective chief inspector from South Wales Police of warning him not to pursue aspects of the campaign further.

In the video, Mr Channon states: “I want to share something that happened this week. This had such an effect on my mental health that I really think I should say it.

“I had a phone call from a DCI from South Wales Police who tried to warn me off, essentially, some of the maternity campaign that we’ve got.

“We asked South Wales Police in December 2023 to look into the maternity service in Swansea because, as the statistics show, they were killing babies and mothers at an alarming rate. As we know, we’ve been vindicated by two incredibly bad inspection reports into the service.

“In those nine months South Wales Police have barely done anything with it. They’ve refused to actually consider any sort of investigation, despite us giving them hundreds of pages of risk register [documents].

“Anyway, this DCI. He phones, very evasively, and from what I can understand because he wouldn’t actually answer questions or go into any detail, I understand that a reference I made to the now chief executive [of Swansea Bay University Health Board] being medical director when there was a spike in deaths, upset people.

“It was a perfectly accurate statement. This detective chief inspector – it was a really shady phone call actually – seemingly acting in a role as some sort of private security thug for the health board in Swansea Bay, he wouldn’t say if anyone had made a complaint, he wouldn’t really answer what I’m supposed to have done, and why I was really being warned off.

“From what I understand now, the DCI … it doesn’t look as if he’s actually logged in the system that he ever actually phoned me, and has refused to get in contact since, despite us asking the South Wales Police contact centre.

“You know, the effect that that has, someone seemingly acting in the role of a thug, asked by a health board to try and scare me off, it’s devastating. I could barely get out of bed the last couple of days, I can barely talk, barely function. There was lots of activity in our maternity group this week, I just couldn’t participate in it, I was broken by it.

“It sums up everything we’ve said. The corporate culture at the health board is thuggery. You don’t like what people are telling you – ignore them. If they keep on chipping away and going public, you send South Wales Police to phone them and warn them off.

“We’d hoped that things would change since the new Chair came in in January, but it’s not. It’s the same corporate bullying, harassment and thuggery. And to have a shady phone call from a DCI who in my opinion hasn’t investigated allegations that we made correctly and properly months ago … I wanted to share that, because the effect that has had on me, and probably the family, despite having done absolutely nothing wrong and not being told I’d committed any offences or if anyone’s actually complained about me … to have this happen when all I’ve ever tried to do was save the lives of babies, because I couldn’t save Gethin’s. Gethin’s future was stolen. He’s severely disabled. I wanted to share that because we won’t be threatened, we won’t be intimidated.

Thug

He added: “Yes, you’ll destroy my mental health for a period, but no thug in a suit – and that’s strong, I know, and I’m not apologising – no corrupt thuggish corporate culture is going to stop me speaking out about the issues in that maternity service, and the issues with the leadership of the health board and the maternity review which has now been slammed by [leading maternity services campaigner] Donna Ockendon, [patients’ voice group] Llais and the latest letter coming out from 33 families. You won’t keep me quiet.”

Mr Channon has shared the name of the DCI he says called him with Nation.Cymru, but he has not identified him publicly at this stage.

A spokesperson for South Wales Police responded: “South Wales Police is aware of matters of concern raised by the Channon family. Our review of the information regarding these concerns remains ongoing at this time.”