David Askew, who had a mental age of 10, collapsed and died after years of harassment by local youths. Today a coroner ruled that he had been unlawfully killed.
The judgement by south Manchester coroner John Pollard came despite lawyers deciding that there was insufficient evidence to charge anyone with manslaughter over Mr Askew’s death.
64 year old Mr Askew lived with his brother – who also had learning difficulties – and his mother on a council estate in Hattersley east Manchester. Coroner John Pollard said he had suffered a nightmare existence over 30 years – baited by generation after generation of yobs.
Again and again youths had hurled eggs, stones and shouted abuse such as “lunatic” and “paedo”, until one day Mr Askew’s heart gave out. After being pestered for cigarettes, Mr Askew collapsed in his front garden on March 10 last year.
Following Mr Askew’s death 19 year old Kial Cottingham, who lived a few doors away, pleaded guilty to harassing him on other occasions and was jailed for 16 months. The Crown Prosecution Service said there was no evidence to charge Cottingham with manslaughter.
Today the coroner described Mr Askew’s tormentors as “feral”, but he also criticised the local council – Tameside – which he said had displayed “a stunning degree of intertia and complacency”. The inquest had heard evidence of a “multi-agency approach” with a multitude of meetings between council officers, housing associations and the police among other agencies. But the coroner noted that there was an “awful lot of talking taking place and not a great deal of action.” On one occasion the council installed a CCTV camera outside Mr Askew’s house that didn’t work once it got dark.
Although the family had called the police 88 times in six years, no officer had spotted the pattern of abuse or, crucially, recorded the incidents as disability hate crimes. If they had, the family would have been seen as a priority case. Greater Manchester police said after the inquest that it had learned lessons and made significant improvements.
In a statement outside the coroner’s court, his 90 year old mother Rose said; “My life is not the same without David. I feel as if part of me is gone. He was always with me – he would always do things for me, he would come shopping with me, just everything. I really miss him.”