What happens when one person is alone with someone dangerous: home visits, live-in care, night shifts, hostel work and lone security.
Each entry is built from the record of what happened: the inquest, the prosecution, the regulator’s notice or the employer’s own investigation. Every page says why the person was working alone, what the employer’s system did or did not do, and where the evidence stops.
If a case involved a crime in someone’s home rather than a lone worker at work, it is not on this shelf.
94 case entries and 0 publications.
A housing officer was shown a gun at a lock change
She went to change the locks with a locksmith for company. The tenant came out in body armour, then pointed a gun at her.
A social worker was sent alone to a teenager with a knife in her waistband
No risk had been identified before the visit. The girl waited until the living-room door was closed.
Hospital staff attacked for three years while the alarms failed
Seven staff and one patient were attacked at a twelve-bed mental health hospital. The alarms meant to bring help failed when help was needed.
Stabbed in a kitchen while unpacking a client’s shopping
Police had just returned the girl to the address and were still outside when she attacked the social worker alone in the kitchen.
Strangled with a hoodie cord after the second nurse was sent out
A mental health nurse was strangled unconscious by a patient. The two-staff rule had lapsed, and his care plan sent the other nurse out.
Support worker stabbed by a resident in mental health crisis
Staff spent the day trying to get psychiatric help for a deteriorating resident and were sent back to a GP referral. She walked into the staff hub and…
Battered in a tenement close while putting up a notice
Thirty years of service, a recycling notice, and a tenant with a six-year grievance. He went into the close alone.
District nurse dragged from her car outside a patient’s flat
A nurse on a home visit was pulled out of her car by a man who had just smashed the window with a bottle. He then tried to…
Followed to her car by a man who wanted his keys
A housing officer was followed to her car and threatened with a bike chain. Her employer went to the civil court, not the police.
Litter warden chased and beaten with a broken pole
A council warden issuing a fixed penalty for a dropped cigarette was confronted by two men, chased down the street and beaten.
Locked in on a home visit and raped by the man she supported
A 25-year-old support worker could not get out of a service user's flat. Staff had been raising concerns about him since 1994, and none reached a risk assessment.
Midwife pelted with eggs and flour on her way to a visit
A community midwife driving to see a pregnant patient was attacked through her car window by a group in the street.
Social worker stabbed eight times with police beside him
A Haringey social worker was stabbed at the door of a Wood Green flat during a welfare check, with two police officers on the same landing.
Two paramedics stabbed seconds after a door was forced
A welfare check at a Wolverhampton maisonette ended with both clinicians stabbed before they were through the door.
Environmental health officer punched in a car park
Two men told a lone council officer they ran the area and wanted £5,000 to let him work. Then they followed him and beat him.
Pushed down the stairs during a council inspection
A landlord who had agreed to a house inspection took one of the two officers from behind and heaved him down the stairs.
Stabbed at the front desk by a tenant who had waited to be seen
A housing association's reception desk was open to the public and staffed by one person. Her attacker was a former tenant with a grievance, and had spoken of…
Two improvement notices and a training need nobody could meet
The HSE served a west Wales health board with two improvement notices for violence and lone working, then found the training it required could not be delivered.
Environment officer beaten at a doorstep, forced to retire
A council environment officer was attacked in a Knottingley street. A colleague was with him, the police were eighteen minutes away, and he never went back to the…
Home care worker killed on a 4am visit to a 95-year-old client
She was working alone in a first-floor flat before dawn. The client she had come to support was arrested on suspicion of her murder, and no prosecution followed.
Stabbed in a ward kitchen the HSE called fundamentally unsafe
Two nurses were repeatedly stabbed by a newly admitted patient who took a knife from the ward kitchen. No patient specific risk assessment had been done, and the…
Support worker stabbed by the contractor who ran the supported living home
A meeting about money, in a supported living house, with nobody else present. The man who killed her ran the home, so no client risk assessment would have…
Two social workers stepped out of the car into a woman with a knife
She had said four months earlier that she would stab the social workers. On the day she reached them before the escort did.
Knocked unconscious in a stranger’s house at midnight
A paramedic treating a patient at a house late on a Sunday night was headbutted without warning and knocked out. He had no chance to see it coming.
Mauled by a dog on a tenancy visit
A housing officer went to a tenancy visit with a colleague. Neither of them knew the dog had attacked someone four months earlier, and the way out was…
Mental health nurse slashed after the doctors left
Two doctors sectioned a man and left one nurse with him to wait for an ambulance. The wait was the most dangerous part of the visit.
Mental health nurse stabbed to death at a private community hospital
Patrick Clarke was killed by a patient on a ward with the unpredictability of a psychiatric unit and the staffing of a small step-down hospital.
Two social workers struck on a visit nobody risk assessed
The mother had a history of violence. Nothing on the file said so, no risk assessment had been done for the visit, and neither worker had been trained…
Woman followed home from work fought him off with her keys
She was alone on a Sheffield street after midnight, followed for more than a mile. Her keys, her phone and two passers-by who heard her shout ended it.
A cashier alone at 4.50am held a knife at bay for half an hour
The panic button, the door locks and an open 999 line all worked. What took half an hour was the help.