First case of corporate manslaughter against NHS trust collapses

A landmark manslaughter prosecution against an NHS trust and a consultant anaesthetist has collapsed, after the judge directed the jury on 28 January to return not guilty verdicts part way through the trial.

Mr Justice Coulson agreed with defence barristers that there was no case to answer against Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust in Kent and a locum consultant anaesthetist, Errol Cornish, in the first corporate manslaughter case to be brought against an NHS trust.

Cornish, 68, was accused of gross …