A grieving daughter and her family are desperately searching for answers after their dad was found dead in his care complex.
Mark Williams, who was almost completely blind, was just 60 years old when he fell off his balcony to his death at Potters Court in Southampton.
At the time, he was having chemotherapy after recently being diagnosed with lymphoma and, according to his daughter Jess, the treatment was going well.
“It was quite manageable and treatable,” mum-of-one Jess, 31, told The Mirror.
“He was getting better. His blood results were coming back normal and dad knew the chemotherapy was working.”
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Describing her dad as “absolutely amazing,” Jess told how he raised her and her two siblings after their mum left when she was seven years old.
“He gave up his career to bring us up. He did everything for us,” she said.
In his younger years, Mark also travelled around the world, learning Tai Chi while living in Sumatra and coming back to Southampton to teach others.
But when Jess was around 12 years old, Mark’s mental health took a turn for the worse and he began suffering from psychosis.
“He sort of went grey in the face and his voice and demeanour changed," she said.
As concern grew for Mark’s welfare he was sectioned for three months - but after his release, Jess said his psychosis was mostly manageable as long as he stuck to his medication.
However, Mark’s physical health also began to decline in his late 40s, when he developed glaucoma and woke up one day having lost sight in one eye.
Over the next few years, the sight in his other eye also began to decline, leaving him almost completely blind and vulnerable.
For many years he managed on his own with visits from carers every day, but eventually, Jess and her siblings began to worry about his safety.
“He had to cross the main road to get to his local shop every day and with quieter cars on the road, we were worried he’d get run over,” Jess said.
“Over the last four or five years he stopped going to the pub and he didn’t have friends around him. We needed to do something about it and get him to meet people who were going through the same thing.”
The family decided to look into assisted living and residential complexes which would provide their dad with the care he needed while allowing him to keep a bit of independence.
They settled on Potters Court, a new housing care scheme and the largest so far in Southampton, with 83 flats.
Jess, who lives virtually next door to the development, thought it would be a great location for her dad and meant she could visit him every day.
However, when they moved Mark into Potters Court in the summer of 2021, Jess had some immediate concerns - including that, as a blind man, he had been placed in a fourth-floor flat.
“He was also a two-minute walk from the lift to get down to the ground floor. What was he supposed to do if it broke?”
The Daily Echo reported last October that Potters Court residents had complained the lifts in the block were “constantly” breaking.
And for Jess, who has worked in health and safety for a decade, there were other red flags.
“My first concern was, how would my dad get out in a fire?”
Throughout his months living in the block, Jess claims there were several recurring issues she raised with staff - including the quality of Mark’s care, which was provided by Apex Prime Care services.
“When he moved in we were told Dad couldn’t have the same carers he’d had at home, who were brilliant,” Jess explained.
Jess alleged on her daily visits to see her dad, his flat was often left in a mess because carers who were supposed to help with cleaning didn’t carry out their duties.
“They would just pop their head around the door and ask him if he needed anything. Dad would usually say it was fine and they would leave. But I could see the mess,” she said.
“It was like he was a bad child. He’d say, ‘I’m so sorry’ to me and it was so hard to watch.
“He lost his independence completely.”
In September last year, Jess became worried about her dad who had started to complain about stomach pain.
Not taking any chances, she told him to call an ambulance and go straight to the hospital where tests revealed he had lymphoma.
Mark began chemotherapy immediately. Not trusting the carers at Potters Court to help with his medication, Jess and her sister Lucy made frequent visits to Mark’s flat to make sure he was ok.
“He called me Sergeant Major because I was so strict with him,” Jess joked.
“Despite everything he was in a good place. We were having a laugh every day. Even though we were going through such a hard time he was happy to have us around.”
Then on 9 November, Jess received a phone call from the manager of Potters Court which changed her life forever.
“It was 7.41, I remember the time exactly as I was sitting in my room getting ready for work,” Jess recalled.
When she answered the phone, the manager told her Mark had been found dead after falling to the ground from his balcony.
Jess threw on some clothes and ran straight to Potters Court.
“There were carers sat on the wall, but not many people seemed to be around,” she recalled.
“I was running back and forth screaming ‘where the f*** is he’ and someone said he was around the corner.
“All I saw was him laying in a flower bed, exposed with a blanket half covering him.”
An ambulance had been called and paramedics began working on him, but tragically, Mark was declared dead at the scene.
“His body was twisted and he was stone cold and yellow. Rigour mortis had set in,” she said.
As she and her sister grieved at the sight of their dad’s death, she claimed management staff didn’t check how they were doing.
Months on from Mark’s death, Jess claims her complaints about the care he received at Potters Court have gone largely unaddressed.
She believes her dad woke up in the night looking for the toilet and became confused before wandering out onto his balcony and falling. At the time of his death, Jess said Mark's mental health was stable and has rejected any suggestion of suicide.
An inquest into Mark’s death has been adjourned until July, and the family hopes it will bring them the closure they desperately need.
A spokesman for Southampton City Council, which runs Potters Court, said: “Potters Court is a housing with care complex that enables people with varying care needs to live independently in their own homes and access support services when they need them.
“Residents’ well-being and safety is our top priority, and we continue to work closely with the commissioned care provider to ensure high-quality care and support is delivered to those who have care plans in place.
“We are saddened by Mr Williams’ death and have initiated our own investigation which Mr Williams’ family have been invited to take part in.
“However, it would be inappropriate for us to comment on any claims or speculation related to the case until the investigation and coroner’s inquest is complete.”
When contacted by the Mirror, Apex Prime Care’s managing director Malcolm Patrick said the company sympathises with Jess and her family’s grief and is supporting the investigation “at every stage.”
He also said the company has been in touch with Mark’s family and has responded to their complaints, but added they were “limited” in what information they could share publicly due to the upcoming inquest.
Mr Patrick said: “We support extremely vulnerable adults at Potters Court and recent events have caused increased levels of anxiety.
“We are doing what we can to reassure residents and staff members, who are feeling unsettled and vulnerable, and to improve life at Potters Court.”
He added Apex has assisted the Care Quality Commission in its inspection of Potters Court which took place after Mark’s death.
Noting the care sector is under immense pressure up and down the country, he said: “Following the inspection report, we have worked tirelessly to make improvements to our service and to the whole community at Potters Court, many of whom we do not provide care for.
“Our new management team is confident that the changes carried out will allow for the service to grow and improve.”
