NEWS HR

Ex-Clarion chief executive Keith Exford has been appointed as an affordable housing consultant at real estate firm CBRE.

Retired banker Robert Mee is the new chairman of trustees at Chester’s Hospice of the Good Shepherd.

The chairman of Notting Hill has stepped down ahead of the association’s upcoming merger with Genesis. Paul Hodgkinson chaired his final group board meeting last Wednesday, after eight and a half years.

Charlotte Brierley and Luke O’Dowd (London) and Kate Deakin (Manchester) are each now a GVA Associate.

A pensioner who repeatedly stabbed her friend during a visit to her at a care home has been spared jail. Marie Seyferth, 69, attacked Elizabeth McGowan with a kitchen knife, at St Mary’s Centre, in Burtonwood, Warrington. Liverpool Crown Court heard how on May 18, 2016, Seyferth – who purchased a five inch blade from BHS – walked into the residential home, at around 12.45 and asked to see her victim. Mrs Gowan, who was eating lunch at the time with a member of staff, agreed to see Seyferth and the pair were left alone in the lounge area. However minutes later staff heard shouts for help and waked in to find Seyferth repeatedly stabbing Mrs McGowan in the back. Prosecuting Keith Sutton said: “Mrs McGowan was taken to Aintree hospital where she was treated for a number of injuries. “She required nine stitches in her neck and seven staples in her back and suffered defence type injuries to her hands, the worst to an index finger which was partially severed. “When arrested the defendant told police she wanted to slit Mrs McGowan’s throat and had gone for her jugular but couldn’t get to it.” After the attack Seyferth, who had been detained by staff before police arrived, reiterated that she had wanted to kill Mrs McGowan and had come to the centre in order to do so. When police arrived and asked Seyferth how she had injured her hands the court heard she replied “probably when I was stabbing her, I wanted to murder Elizabeth McGowan but I wasn’t successful.” Seyferth, who sat in the dock with her head in her hands, told police in interview she had lived with Mrs McGowan, in St Helens, in the past. She told police she wanted to kill her after claiming Mrs McGowan had used her as a slave for 25 years. In evidence heard in court consultant forensic psychiatrist Dr Lucy Bacon said Seyferth is a paranoid schizophrenic and at the time of the attack, had not been taking her medication.

Exhausted and over-worked Merseyside nurses say they are being forced to drink Red Bull and diabetic glucose shots to stay awake on shift. Several members of NHS staff at hospitals in the region said the tough reality of caring for the most vulnerable patients amidst crippling funding cuts.

Rod Cahill has announced that he will be retiring as chief executive of Catalyst, having steered the social landlord through six major estate regeneration projects as well as a merger in 2002.

Care village operator Belong has appointed NHS England’s former head of nursing strategy and commissioning, Stacey McCann, to the post of chief operating officer.