WINDOWS at a residential home did not have lockable restrictors in place to prevent them being fully opened when a 90-year-old woman jumped through one to her death, York Crown Court heard.

But the home’s owners say they did comply with building regulations and have defended the decision not to move Dora Strickland to a ground floor flat from her second floor flat at Red Lodge, New Earswick, when she said she could kill herself.

John Hocking, then executive director of Joseph Rowntree Housing Trust, wrote that a doctor, after assessing her mental state, had not assessed her as “vulnerable” and he would not have expected the staff to take extra precautions when caring for her other than keeping an eye on her.

“The trust’s policy is that all of the individuals we support are as safe as possible within the environment where they live,” he wrote as he answered questions under caution on behalf of the trust during a City of York Council investigation following the death.

The council is prosecuting the trust on health and safety charges.

The trust denies that it failed to take reasonably practical steps to protect its residents’ safety, including Mrs Strickland’s, and failed to have a full and sufficient risk assessment in place at the time.

An inquest concluded that she took her own life when she jumped through the window of her second floor accommodation on November 1, 2011, the jury has heard.

Gemma Casling, general manager of the home at the time of Mrs Strickland’s death, gave evidence that the home’s windows could then be opened wide by residents.

Since then, lockable restrictors had been installed, but residents had their keys which could only be taken from them if they had been declared mentally incapable.

The trial continues.