Couple held on suspicion of 5 murders at care home

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A husband and wife who manage a care home were arrested yesterday on suspicion of murdering five elderly residents. The arrests of Leigh Baker, the home’s cook, and his wife Rachel, a registered nurse, followed a police investigation that began after the death of Lucy Cox, 97, at the home in Butleigh, Somerset, on New Year’s Day. A police spokesman said the Bakers had been arrested “on suspicion of the murder of four women and one man, theft and unlawful possession of controlled prescribed drugs and attempting to pervert the course of justice”.Parkfields residential home was closed by social services after details of the investigation became public in March. Mrs Baker was first arrested on suspicion of administering a noxious substance five days after the death of Mrs Cox but was released on bail. Her husband was arrested soon afterwards and also released on bail. In the summer police exhumed the bodies of three residents whose deaths were regarded as suspicious. The remains of Nellie Mary Pickford, who died aged 89, Fred Green, who died in January last year aged 81, and Marion Alder, who died last July aged 79, were removed for tests and examination by a Home Office pathologist. The fifth suspicious death remains unidentified. In March the Commission for Social Care Inspection said that it was investigating a failure to notify the authorities and to complete paper-work in connection with seven deaths over a two-year period. The commission subsequently ordered the closure of the care home, saying that there had been a significant deterioration in conditions since a previous inspection. The home is owned by Mr Baker’s parents, Malcolm and June Baker, and has been managed by Rachel Baker since 1988. It housed an average of 16 elderly people in the main building and nine in sheltered housing. Parkfields passed an unannounced inspection by the commission on June 13 last year, in which it was credited on its “comfortable and homely atmosphere”. Its staff were described as friendly and were observed being “kind and caring towards residents”. An inspection on January 24 found that standards had dropped worryingly. Police were alerted and residents were rehoused by social services. The Coroner’s Office in Frome, Somerset, opened and adjourned an inquest into Lucy Cox on January 11. No inquest was carried out in connection with the other deaths. Neighbours of the Bakers, in a quiet suburban street in Glastonbury, described the couple and their 5-year-old daughter as “lovely people”. One said: “I’m really shocked. This is terrible for the local community because all the people at the care home are local.”