Valerie Kneale, a 75-year-old retired clerical assistant, was admitted to Blackpool Victoria Hospital’s stroke unit on November 12, 2018, after suffering what her family believed to be a minor stroke at her home in Knott End on Sea. In the days that followed, her health deteriorated rapidly, culminating in her death on November 16. What initially appeared to be a tragic but routine medical case has, years later, become the subject of a harrowing inquest that has exposed grave institutional failures and an unsolved crime that continues to haunt her family and community.
According to BBC News, Valerie’s family described her as “chatty” and lucid when they left her at the hospital late on the evening of November 12. Her husband Bill, recalling her stoic humor, recounted that when he told her not to “do anything stupid,” she retorted: “Like die? Don’t be so bloody stupid.” The family departed that night reassured, but by the next morning, the tone had shifted dramatically. Valerie’s daughter Sharon found her mother “very agitated.” Doctors informed the family that Valerie had suffered a further brain bleed overnight. Surgery was discussed, but the prognosis was bleak: even if successful, Valerie would likely remain in a vegetative state, dependent on round-the-clock care.
Faced with this unbearable choice, the family decided to withdraw life support and let nature take its course. Bill later described the decision as “heart-breaking” and said, “It was a horrendous decision to make and I cried uncontrollably.” Valerie, who had always insisted she never wanted to be a burden, was transferred to a private room. There, her family noticed she was making “painful whimpering noises” and scratching at her chest and thigh area. Staff dismissed these as involuntary movements, but Sharon, looking back, believes her mother was trying to communicate distress.
As the days passed, small oddities accumulated. Sharon noticed a rolled-up towel placed between her mother’s legs, but no explanation was given. Valerie was also fitted with a catheter, a procedure the family says was never discussed with them. All the while, they remained by her bedside until her death on November 16. Sharon’s regret at leaving her mother alone that Monday evening is palpable: “I question myself why I didn’t just stay. I never saw my mum again with her eyes open after that.”
The true horror of Valerie’s final days only came to light after her death. While preparing her body for the mortuary, three healthcare assistants noticed “extensive” and “significant bleeding around the vaginal area.” Yet, as reported by both BBC News and the Daily Mail, this alarming discovery was not reported at the time. The oversight would have devastating consequences for the subsequent investigation.
It was only three weeks later that police launched a murder investigation, prompted by a post-mortem examination. Home Office forensic pathologist Dr Alison Armour concluded that Valerie had died “not because of a stroke but because of a forceable sexual assault.” Dr Armour determined that the injuries were inflicted “at least 48 hours before death,” meaning the assault occurred after Valerie’s admission to the hospital. The manner and timing of the injury left no doubt: Valerie Kneale had been attacked while in the care of the NHS.
Retired senior investigating officer Jill Riley told the inquest, as reported by both BBC and the Daily Mail, that the delay in reporting the bleeding “seriously compromised” the murder investigation. “The delay was significant in securing and preserving critical evidence. Valerie’s room would have been cleared and used by other patients. There was limited, if any, forensic opportunities,” Riley explained. “There were no CCTV opportunities in the stroke unit and the wider hospital because the data had over-run and been deleted, while clothing worn by Valerie at the time of death had been disposed of by hospital staff.”
These failures left detectives with precious little to work with. Access to the stroke unit was poorly monitored, with doors often propped open and staff “tailgating” each other through security systems. According to the Daily Mail, Riley noted that “the delay was significant and affected any investigation we could carry out.” Consultant neurologist Dr Christopher Douglass added that he was “shocked at gaps in case notes” during Valerie’s hospital stay, with a five-hour gap on her first night and a 21-hour gap the following day. “There is a fog,” he remarked, reflecting the chaos and lack of documentation that hampered efforts to reconstruct Valerie’s final hours.
Valerie’s children, Mike and Sharon, recounted further troubling details at the inquest. On her second day in hospital, Sharon noticed her mother scratching her chest and groin. Staff again dismissed this as involuntary, but Sharon remains convinced it was an attempt at communication. Mike recalled his mother uttering the phrases “no response” and “babies do that”—words she would not normally say. “I thought they might have been the last thing she heard. I was worried because I wasn’t expecting to hear anything because she was in a comatose state.”
Despite a six-year murder investigation—featured on the BBC’s Crimewatch and with a £20,000 reward for information—no one has ever been charged in connection with Valerie Kneale’s death. As the inquest resumed in September 2025, it became clear that all possible lines of inquiry had been exhausted. The criminal investigation has ended, but the inquest presses on, seeking some measure of accountability and closure.
For Valerie’s family, the pain of unanswered questions compounds their grief. A statement from her late husband Bill, read at the inquest, captured the family’s heartbreak: “We made the heartbreaking decision to let nature take its course.” Sharon’s regret—“I will always regret leaving her alone after she was admitted”—echoes the anguish of loved ones left to grapple with what might have been.
The case has also raised broader concerns about patient safety and institutional accountability within the NHS. The lack of immediate reporting, poor security controls, missing medical notes, and the destruction of potential evidence all point to systemic failings. As Dr Armour’s post-mortem findings made clear, Valerie Kneale’s death was not the result of natural causes, but of a violent crime committed within the walls of a hospital entrusted with her care.
While the inquest continues, the memory of Valerie Kneale—and the questions her death raises about trust, safety, and justice in Britain’s hospitals—remains painfully alive for her family and all those following the case.
