Bereaved Essex campaigner to meet families fighting for urgent action on mental health failures

A bereaved mother who led a ten-year campaign into more than 2,000 mental health related deaths in Essex in England from 2000 to 20003 is coming to the North.

Melanie Leahy will be in Belfast on Tuesday, July 15 to meet families here who have experienced similar failures in mental health care. 

Melanie’s son, Matthew Leahy, 20, was found unresponsive at the Linden Centre in Chelmsford after reporting he had been raped days earlier.

Speaking at the Lampard Inquiry in Chelmsford in September 2024, Ms Leahy described the final days of her son's life as “in a place… I truly believe was hell on Earth.”

She testified: “He was alone, malnourished, over-medicated, scared, bleeding, bruised, raped, injected multiple times, ignored and frightened.

“I was told my son’s body was a crime scene, and I was not allowed to touch him. The lack of compassion or empathy I experienced that day will stay with me for life.

“This [inquiry] is a place I’ve fought a long time to get to, for all the wrong reasons," said Ms Leahy.

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The 21-year-old was killed in Co Derry in 2020

Addressing other grieving families, Melanie Leahy added: “I hope my determination serves as a powerful reminder that truth will find its way, no matter what the obstacles.

"Families in Northern Ireland—too many of whom have lost loved ones due to failures by local Health Trusts—are now calling for urgent action in relation to mental health services here."

Mary Gould, whose 21-year-old son Conall died in 2017 under the care of the Northern Health and Social Care Trust, said: "Those of us who speak out have our voices silenced by a system unwilling to acknowledge the breadth of this crisis. More than two years after a High Court order, the RQIA has still not delivered on its legal duty to regulate community mental health services. Despite promises and briefings, the protocol it claimed to be developing remains unpublished and unproven.

"This is a scandal. More than 40,000 people rely on these services each year. Yet in 2023 to 24, only 10 concerns were recorded — none from service users — exposing a system where families repeatedly report that they are silenced and failed. There is zero inspection, and families are being sent around in circles.”

As a gesture of solidarity, Melanie Leahy and the Essex campaigners have included a photo of Mary’s son, Conall, in a montage displayed at the Inquiry.

Families here said they were looking forward to learning from the hard-won experience of the Essex campaigners and believe those lessons must be urgently applied here. 

The meeting is being hosted by New Script for Mental Health, a grassroots mental health rights movement.

Sara Boyce, Campaign Organiser stated: “Families involved in New Script are united in their desire to ensure that the harm and loss they experienced because of health service failures should never happen to other families. Yet the sad reality is that lessons are not being learnt. First hand experiences of families, coupled with multiple investigations, inquiries, and reviews, all point to the abject failure of the HSC leadership to learn from their mistakes and implement changes recommended. 

"In our recent response to the Department of Health’s consultation on its Being Open Framework we called for the urgent introduction of a Statutory Duty of Candour for organisations and individuals in healthcare. The Minister for Health must act to implement 2018 recommendation by Justice O’Hara arising from his Independent Review of Hyponatraemia Related Deaths (IHRD)”.