Former Blackpool MP Gordon Marsden calls for 'rigorous' inquiry into death of Marlene McCabe and alleged failings by resort medics

Mrs McCabe was killed by her grandson Conor Clarkson just two months after she contacted medics at Lancashire and South Cumbria NHS Trust about his mental health but was told days later that psychiatric intervention was not required.

The trust runs The Harbour mental health hospital in the resort.

The Blackpool South MP at the time of Mrs McCabe’s death, Gordon Marsden, said a ‘rigorous’ inquiry is needed.

He said: “This is a horrendous case where it has been alleged there was failing of care by Lancashire and South Cumbria NHS Trust. As an MP I consistently voiced my concerns from 2016 onwards about issues at the Trust and The Harbour.

“There needs to be a rigorous independent enquiry into what has happened. It’s too grave a matter to be done in-house and if these alleged failings are true, the people who have been involved need to brought to account.”

Clarkson, 25, was sentenced to a secure hospital unit on Thursday for the killing during a ‘psychotic episode’ in September at the family home on West Park Drive in Marton. He was later diagnosed as having schizophrenia.

Mrs McCabe’s daughter Sharon Whitlow has started a civil case against the trust.

On Thursday she said: “We suspected Conor had schizophrenia but we were informed Conor would be on a six month waiting list before he would be seen, assessed or diagnosed. Two months later my mother was dead.”

Lancashire and South Cumbria NHS Trust was approached for comment. Prior to October the trust was known as Lancashire Care NHS Foundation Trust.