A nurse at an Ipswich mental health unit accused of neglecting a psychiatric patient will not face a retrial, a court has heard.

Gbenga Oyewole, 60, of Fife, had denied wilfully neglecting a patient at the Woodlands Unit on the Ipswich Hospital site between November 16 and 19.

Earlier this month a jury was unable to reach a verdict on the charge and the case was adjourned to allow the prosecution to decide if it wanted to have a retrial.

On Wednesday (October 18) at Ipswich Crown Court the prosecution announced it wasn’t seeking a retrial.

Oyewole’s co-defendant Funmilola Dauda, 50, of Prettygate, Colchester, was cleared of wilfully neglecting the patient. She had denied the charge.

During the trial, Dauda claimed the ward had been 'difficult, chaotic and understaffed' on the night in question.

She said that because of a shortage of staff she had to keep observation on another patient while a health care assistant kept watch on the patient in seclusion.

Dauda accepted that NHS protocol stated that patients in seclusion should be physically reviewed every two hours by two qualified mental health nurses and this hadn’t been done.

She said that instead, notes written by the health care assistant who had been keeping watch on the patient had been relied on to write “proxy” reviews.

The woman in question was a patient on Lark Ward at the Woodland unit, where Dauda and Oyewole worked as mental health nurses.

She had been placed in seclusion in a locked room with a mattress after trying to escape and scratching a member of staff.

Although the woman was constantly observed on CCTV by a health care assistant, NHS protocol required her to be checked every two hours by two mental health nurses.