PROSECUTORS claimed nurse Samuel Haward had been in the room as a 999 operator asked if CPR had been started on tragic Daniel Beswick.

The registered nurse is currently on trial at Swindon Crown Court together with support worker Nthabiseng Bodiba accused of lying to police about their movements on the night the brain injury unit patient lost his life.

Mr Beswick, 31, was found hanged in his room at Chalkdown House, Dorcan, on the night of September 17, 2015. Prosecutors claim no one tried to resuscitate him until after a 999 call was made to police shortly before 10pm. Haward and Bodiba say CPR was started before the call and deny lying to detectives. Another nurse, Petua Nugent, initially gave a statement corroborating the others’ account but later claimed she lied.

Yesterday, jurors were played sections from the 999 call. Prosecutor Nicholas Tucker claimed that a man’s voice heard on the call belonged to Haward – apparently at odds with the defendant’s claim he had left the staff office in order to wait for an ambulance.

Haward replied: “I can say it wasn’t my voice.”

The nurse, who now works in mental health, stuck to his story. “The most important thing is to do resuscitation and seek help. But all I’m saying is when I put Daniel down at that point I commenced resuscitation.

“There’s no point I have left Daniel unattended.”

Mr Tucker said: “It’s the prosecution case that prior to the phone call you had not commenced CPR because you had just assumed that Daniel was dead. We know that you disagree with that.

“I do disagree,” Haward replied.

The prosecutor alleged Haward had conspired with Bodiba to cover up the fact CPR had not begun until after police were called – and that he had persuaded Ms Nugent to back up his account.

Haward denied it: “I’m not allowed to do that as a nurse.” He denied meeting his former colleague Ms Nugent at a Harvester pub in west London before her police interview, telling jurors: “I have never met Petua outside work.”

Two nurses described the man as honest and hardworking in references read to the court by defence barrister James Hasslacher.

Bodiba, 38, of Tyndale Gardens, and Haward, 46, of Tavistock Road, Reading, deny perverting the course of justice. The trial continues.