Tragedy That Led to Being in Care

IT was a set of unusual circumstances that led father-of-three George Inwood to the care home where he was to die.

A month after being accused of killing a parrot in a dispute at a city pet shop, Mr Inwood turned to Lodge Hostel for its mental health respite care in August 2003.

With more than a decade of mental health problems and the loss of his wife Beryl in May that year, the court case was another blow for the former Rover assembly line worker.

It was alleged that shortly after his wife’s sudden death at home, Mr Inwood walked into Sheldon Pets and killed the bird in front of horrified staff when an argument turned nasty. The avid bird fancier with an aviary at his Horrall Street home, in Sheldon, allegedly smashed the bird’s head on the floor when staff refused his demands to take it off him.

The RSPCA charged the pensioner with cruelty to an animal but later called off the prosecution on ‘humanitarian grounds’. It was soon after that court appearance that Mr Inwood sought extra help, sleeping every night at the care home, in Yardleyfields Road, Stechford.

Close friend Dan Clayton, the 71-year-old retired owner of St Paul’s garage, in Balsall Heath, said: ‘George died in a terrible way and hopefully lessons will be learned from what happened.

‘I knew him for 50 years and was really upset to find out he had died. He was such a nice, outgoing man.’ Mr Inwood had lived in Birmingham all his life and a photograph of him as a child has been on show at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery. He is pictured with his father, who won the George Cross for bravery during World War Two