Honey Rose gross negligence manslaughter conviction quashed

Optometrist Honey Rose has had her conviction for manslaughter by gross negligence overturned at an appeal hearing this morning (July 31).

Rose was given a two-year suspended sentence last August. During her trial, a jury was told that she failed to notice that eight-year-old Vinnie Barker, of Henley Road, Ipswich, had swollen optic discs when she carried out an examination at a branch of Boots, in Upper Brook Street, Ipswich.

Appeal judges ruled there had been a ‘serious breach of duty’ by Rose, but said it did not constitute the crime of gross negligence manslaughter.

Sir Brian Leveson, sitting with two other judges, said the court had concluded that ‘in assessing reasonable foreseeability of serious and obvious risk of death in cases of gross negligence manslaughter, it is not appropriate to take into account what the defendant would have known but for his or her breach of duty.’