A mental health care worker who admitted to neglecting a teenager was seen on CCTV sitting on a communal sofa at times when records say the woman had been checked on.
Louise Furlong died after being found with a ligature around her neck in her bathroom at Highbury Hospital at 7.09 pm on 11 September 2022.
Sylwia Quaye-Mensah, who was responsible for her observations in the hour before she was found unconscious, pleaded guilty to wilful neglect at Nottingham Crown Court on 18 November 2025.
The 42-year-old, of Monsall Avenue, Ilkeston, is expected to be sentenced on 2 March but was called as a witness to the inquest at Nottingham Coroner’s Court on Wednesday, 11 February.
The inquest heard how Ms Quaye-Mensah was tasked with all observations on the Rowan 2 ward, where Ms Furlong was based, between 6 pm and 7 pm on the day in question.
Ms Furlong’s observations were meant to take place every ten minutes.
At 6.05 pm, an entry on the observation log, made by staff on a computer tablet, said that Louise was “in her bedroom, co-operative and calm”, the inquest heard.
But CCTV footage from 6.05 pm showed the tablet in the hands of Ms Quaye-Mensah, who was sitting on a communal sofa.
The inquest heard from the duty ward manager on 11 September that the tablet was the only tablet on the ward at the time and was the only method by which staff logged observations on the Rowan 2 ward.
Asked whether all this was correct by coroner Alexandra Pountney, Ms Quaye-Mensah said she would not answer – something she was legally allowed to do according to inquest laws, which state that a witness need not answer any question that tends to incriminate them.
Another entry in the observation log, at 6.27 pm, notes that Louise was again in her bedroom, co-operative and calm.
CCTV from 6.27 pm shows Ms Quaye-Mensah with the tablet sitting on the communal sofa, while Louise was not in the area and Ms Quaye-Mensah was not in Louise’s bedroom.
Again, Ms Quaye-Mensah chose not to answer any questions in relation to this log.
Further logs were made at 6.41 pm, 6.48 pm, 6.55 pm and 7.01 pm to say that Louise was in her room, asleep and breathing.
At all of these times, Ms Quaye-Mensah was seen on CCTV with the tablet, sitting on the communal sofa.
CCTV also showed her at some point in the final 35 minutes of the hour walking past Louise’s room in the corridor and not checking the window.
Ms Quaye-Mensah, who spoke with the help of a Polish interpreter, answered some questions from the coroner and barrister at the inquest.
She confirmed that she was employed by the Athona job agency, which is how she had ended up in her position at Highbury Hospital.
She confirmed that, on the morning of 11 September, she had been sent from Highbury to Queen’s Medical Centre for work-related purposes and that she had a conversation with a nurse upon her return.
But she said she did not remember being told that Ms Furlong had had an unsettled morning, nor that she was at risk of ligature.
She also denied having received an induction on either Rowan 2 ward, where Ms Furlong was, or on Redwood 1 ward, which the clinical team leader at Highbury Hospital at the time said was where an induction had happened.
Ms Quaye-Mensah said she had only been shown where the toilet and the emergency exit were on the Cherry ward, where she had completed her first shift at the hospital.
She also denied having ever seen a patient observation policy document, said to be the one in use at the hospital in September 2022.
The inquest continues.
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