A man has been found guilty of manslaughter after he put his drunk girlfriend in a lethally hot bath until her skin peeled off.

 

Mark Clowes, 53, placed 42-year-old Clare Bell into the water before later helping her out of it after she has been badly scalded.

 

A court heard she was incapable of doing it herself.

 

Afterwards, Clowes failed to get her any help despite noticing that her skin was coming off.

 

 

She was placed in the bath at around 11am on August 9, 2020, and it wasn’t until 5.10pm later that day Clowes called 999 asking for an ambulance – after he failed to check on her for many hours.

 

This was despite Clowes being aware that Clare was incapable of asking for help herself.

 

Medics found Clare on the bed where she had sadly already died.

 

She had 30% full thickness burns to her back, bottom, thighs, feet, arm and elbows. A pathologist said that scalding contributed to her death, Birmingham Live reports.

 

Clowes of Audley, Staffordshire, was found guilty of the gross negligence manslaughter at Stafford Crown Court yesterday, November 28.

 

 

Following the verdict, detective chief inspector of the Staffordshire Police’s Major Investigations Department, Cheryl Hannan, said: “I welcome today’s verdict.
“Clare should have been able to trust Mark to look after her when she was incapable. He didn’t do anything for Clare until it was too late.”
Clowes is due to be sentenced on February 2.