Tosh's widow waits for court decision

Kevin Lloyd died after a drinking binge in 1998

The widow of the TV actor Kevin Lloyd who played Tosh Lines in The Bill will have to wait four weeks to hear if her legal claim against the rehabilitation clinic where he died has been successful.

Kevin Lloyd, who played hardbitten cop character Tosh in the police drama, choked to death after a drinking binge while recovering from alcoholism more than five years ago.

His death came just after he was sacked from his £130,000-a-year role for turning up drunk.

His wife Lesley was at Nottingham County Court on Friday following a week-long hearing to bring a damages claim against the clinic near Burton-on-Trent, Staffordshire, where Lloyd was staying when he died.

Lloyd, a father of seven, was seen was seen staggering in the street and drinking from a bottle of whisky near the Dove Clinic in Rolleston hours before his death in May 1998.

The 49-year-old policeman's son was put to bed in the recovery position.

Had almost anything else been done other than putting him to bed in his room, he probably would have lived Richard Burns, Mrs Lloyd's solicitor

But despite monitoring by nursing staff, he later choked on his own vomit and paramedics were unable to save him.

"Cavalier attitude"

Mr Lloyd, who had separated from his wife, checked into the specialist clinic five days before he died.

Richard Burns, on behalf of Mrs Lloyd, told the court that nurses stopped continuously checking Mr Lloyd 30 minutes before his death.

He said: "Had almost anything else been done other than putting him to bed in his room, he probably would have lived."

He said the clinic had a "cavalier attitude" to recording the checks made on Mr Lloyd and had insufficient protocols about what to do in an emergency.

He added: "If clinics don't have guidance on what to do in a medical emergency, it is all too likely they are going to simply do what they did - rather than ship him off to hospital, leave them in their room to die."

Speciality Care (Rehab) Limited, which owns the clinic, denies negligence, claiming they did their best to look after Lloyd even though he had technically discharged himself earlier that day.

Dominic Nolan, on behalf of the clinic, told the court: "The question comes to this - was what was done by the nurses within the standard expected of them? It was."

Judge David Brunning reserved judgment on the case and said he would produce a written judgment in around four weeks' time.

Kevin Lloyd's brother, the ITN reporter Terry Lloyd, who started his career in Derby, was shot dead in Basra on 22 March whilst covering the conflict in Iraq.