A care home resident supposedly receiving one-to-one care around the clock showed signs of rigor mortis by the time emergency services were called to his death, a court heard today.

Paramedics found the limbs of Alan Sayers were stiffening, indicating he had been dead for several hours, when they arrived at the Mountleigh Care Home in Newbridge.

Mr Sayers, who was 52 when he died on September 27 2004, was at the home because he suffered with front lobe dementia which caused changed personality and a consequent failure to care for himself.

Newport Crown Court heard the condition deteriorated to such an extent that the care home successfully applied for funding for 24 hour care because of the risks he posed to himself and others.

By the time Mr Sayers died, the care home, which is now under new ownership, had received more than £100,000 of funding to look after him.

Gerard Elias QC, prosecuting, said despite Mr Sayers' thorough care needs, it was apparent that no one was monitoring him for several hours until he was discovered dead at 4am.

"Paramedics called, arriving on scene and examining Alan Sayers, found rigor mortis which sets in some hours after death,’’ said Mr Elias.

"There was blood around the nose and mouth and on the pillow which no carer or nurse can explain.

"If he died following a fit or seizure, no carer can explain. If he suddenly ceased breathing, no carer reports.

"In short, it is plain that no-one was with him at the time of his death or witnessed the manner of it.

"Further he was not discovered for some time after death.’’ Four carers; Rosslyn Jenkins, Chengeta Kaziboni, Michael Lurvey and Margaret Lewis, along with qualified nurse Musediq Salisu, who were on duty at the home on the night in question, are on trial charged with willful neglect of patient.

The care home's general manager, Dawn Harris, and care manager, Enda Evans, are also charged with the same offence.

Also on trial is Mr Sayers' local GP, Dr Sushma Ohja, who is charged with obtaining property by deception and willfully making a false representation with a view to procuring the burning of any human remains.

Mr Elias said Ohja made false entries on the medical certificate of cause of death, the death certificate and certificate for cremation.

Mr Elias said Ohja wrongly claimed to have seen Mr Sayers during illness in the two years before his death, she had seen him alive on July 14 2004 and she was able to give the mode and cause of death "from her own observations’’.

The court heard Ohja certified the cause of death as cardiac arrest and hypertension, despite there being no history of a pre-existing heart condition, and syncope, which is a dizziness or fainting, over the course of one hour.

"In reality,’’ said Mr Elias, "she had no knowledge of the deceased and she invented the cause of death.’’ He added: "The prosecution say that this was obviously a case to be referred to the coroner.

"The prosecution does not have to prove the motive but it may be that the motivation for falsifying these documents was because Dr Ohja was aware that all was not right with the care that had been afforded to Alan Sayers that night and no doubt further feared that any investigation, such as would have arisen from an inquest, might have cast light on the inadequacies of her own attention to her patient over the previous months and years.

"Importantly, by certifying the cause of death, signing the death and cremation certificates, asserting that the cause of death were from her own observations, Dr Ohja ensured that a post-mortem would not take place, an inquest would not be held and effectively that the body could be cremated at any time thereafter - which it was.

"It happened that the family wanted the body cremated and so it was.

"It is the Crown's case that this is not some technical offence or cutting corners on the part of Dr Ohja.

"This went far beyond any question of incompetence. This offence was apparently motivated by the desire to cover up failings - both her own and those of others in this room and her answers to the police indicate the degree of knowledge that she had of what had occurred with Alan Sayers earlier that day.’’ Ohja, who was also a forensic medical examiner and police surgeon for Gwent Police at the time, claimed £50.70 from the force for attending the death of Mr Sayers.

Mr Elias said that during one of her initial interviews with police, Ohja stated she attended the home in her capacity as Mr Sayers' GP and would not have expected payment for it.

The jury heard that in a subsequent police interview, Ohja changed her account and said she attended the care home after an unidentified police officer telephoned her and questioned the cause of death.

Evans, 56, of Glyn Derwen, Llanbradach, South Wales; Harris, 52, of Raglan Mews, Newport; Jenkins, 54, of Alexandra Place, Newbridge; Kaziboni, 34, of Cowbridge Road West, Cardiff; Lurvey, 54, of Greenfield, Newbridge; Ohja, 55, of Hillside Park, Bargoed; Salisu, 47, of Viscount Evan Drive, Newport, and Lewis, 60, of Prospect Place, Cwmbran, deny the charges.