Della Callagher's husband tells of food poisoning from Railway Hotel that killed her Guests paid Â£39.95 for Christmas dinner at the Railway Hotel, HornchurchÂ Della Callagher died and 32 other diners became seriously ill after the meal Turkey was cooked previous day and not properly reheated, court heard Landlady and chef found guilty of perverting the course of justice Judge warns pair 'immediate prison sentence' likelyÂ Pub chain Mitchells and Butlers found guilty of serving unsafe foodÂ Â Â Mother-of-one Della Callagher died of food poisoning after eating a reheated Christmas dinner A husband has told how his dying wife's eyes rolled back into her head after eating a reheatedÂ Christmas dinner at one of the country's top pub chains, a court heard. Mother-of-one Della Callagher died and 32 other diners became seriously ill after eating the turkey dinner at the Railway Hotel, Hornchurch, Essex. The 46-year-old became unwell on Boxing Day and her devastated husband told the court how his wife began shaking and her eyes rolled back into her head. Snaresbrook Crown Court heard she was sent home from Queen's Hospital, Romford, and she died on December 27. Guests paid Â£39.95 for a meal which had been cooked the day before and given a second blast on a hotplate before it was brought to the table.Â Prosecutors claimed the food was not allowed to cool when it was first cooked and then not properly reheated, creating a perfect breeding ground for the deadly Clostridium bacteria.Â After the outbreak landlady Anne-Marie McSweeney, 40, and chef Mehmet Kaya, 37 disposed of all the waste food, preventing health inspectors from taking samples. They also forged kitchen records. They were both found guilty perverting the course of justice for falsifying food safety records. Pub chain Mitchells and Butlers was found guilty of placing unsafe food, namely turkey meat, on the market by not ensuring food hygiene rules were followed.Â Mr Callagher said his wife was in a 'great mood' on Christmas Day 2012 because she loved being with her family at that time of year. But she began to feel unwell at around 5:30am on Boxing Day and he fell ill about an hour later. Mr Callagher said: 'We both had the same symptoms, but Della got progressively far worse than me as we went throughout the day, with vomiting, diarrhoea and stomach pain. 'I called my mother-in-law, and said 'you've got to come to the house'. I was getting increasingly concerned as the day went on. The vomiting and diarrhoea wouldn't stop and Della was a very private person, and it was horrific to see what was going on. 'My mother-in-law called NHS Helpline first and that didn't seem to work, whatever that was, and then the paramedics were called by 999. 'Della was in quite a state physically so they took her in an ambulance to Queen's Hospital, Romford.' He told the court that because of his food poisoning, he was not able to go with his wife. He said: 'I couldn't. I wasn't in the physical state to go. My mother-in-law went and I think my brother-in-law joined them later at the hospital. Guilty:Landlady Anne-Marie McSweeney and chef Mehmet Kaya were convicted of perverting the course of justice for falsifying food safety records at Snaresbrook Crown Court The next thing I discovered, they were back at my house, my brother-in-law is a black taxi driver and he brought them back. He continued: 'They didn't take her in A&E because I think they were concerned it was the norovirus. They gave her a shot of something in the ambulance. They sort of turned her away. He said she seemed a bit better after the drugs but in the afternoon or early evening she took a dramatic turn for the worse. Mr Callagher said: 'She got far, far, far, worse. It was horrific. He said he called his mother-in-law again, asking her to come back to the house, adding: 'I didn't know what to do. 'I called my mother-in-law and she was going to come round and I was holding Della on the bed because I didn't want vomit to go down her throat, and she would choke.' He added: 'Something changed. I felt her physically shake and her eyes rolled, as if she was having a cardiac arrest. I felt her physically shake and her eye rolled, as if she was having a cardiac arrestÂ Mr Callagher said the ambulance took more than 45 minutes to arrive as his brother-in-law was instructed how to do CPR over the telephone. He said: 'We had someone on the line who was instructing us to do CPR. My brother-in-law was giving her CPR and trying to save her, but there was no sign of life. My mother-in-law was very ill by this point. The paramedics took over and we went downstairs to let them do their job. We hoped for a different outcome, but she hadn't breathed now for 45 minutes. Paramedics took my brother-in-law outside and I think they was going to say she was clinically gone, and they then felt a pulse and they took her to hospital. Mr Callagher told the court that this time he travelled in the ambulance with his wife, regardless of his own condition. He said: 'It didn't matter to me what state I was in. Mrs Callagher was pronounced dead at the hospital at around 8.15am on December 27. Kaya, who had spent eight years with the chain, told investigators that he had cooked the turkey meat on Christmas Eve and allowed it to cool down process between 3pm and 4pm. He said he had placed the food containers over a chiller for one hour before checking and recording the temperature again, before placing them in a walk-in fridge at about 8pm. But CCTV footage showed him leaving the pub at 4pm and he did not return for the rest of the day. Della Callagher died and 32 other diners became seriously ill after eating the turkey dinner at the Railway Hotel, Hornchurch, Essex, on Christmas Day 2012 McSweeney, who had worked for the company for 24 years, claimed she had checked the temperature of the meat and 'remembered' the figures so Kaya could write them in the log on his next shift. The pub's CCTV footage showed she had not left the front of house for more than two minutes for the remainder of the shift. It was claimed that did not give her enough time to check the turkey festering in the kitchen. The cook claimed within an hour of cooling the meat had reached around 25 degrees centigrade - but tests showed it was more likely to be at around 70 degrees. Andrew Campbell-Tiech, QC, prosecuting, said: 'The narrow implication is that Mr Kaya did not know of the likely range of temperature after one hour's cooling, if he did there wouldn't be this huge difference. Which in turn leads to the wider implication that the Railway Hotel only paid lip service to the systems the company had prescribed but did not enforce. Checks on seven pubs in the chain in east London and Essex showed that food safety standards were not enforced by the parent company, the court heard. McSweeney said she loved her job, but often struggled to stay on top of the mountains of paperwork set by the pub's parent company. Judge Alastair Hammerton sitting at Snaresbrook Crown Court has adjourned sentencing until January 8 She said: 'I love it, I've always loved it, I've been there since I was 14, it's always busy, it was a busy place, and there's always something going on even when it was quiet.' Staff at the hotel were overwhelmed with documents to fill in relating to food safety, cleaning, stock check, stock rotation and customer service, the court heard. When asked how she coped, McSweeney said: 'You have to do it as best you can, you have to try and make time for it.' McSweeney said she had not received any food hygiene refresher training for four years prior to the incident. She claimed she had not received the food safety guidelines on the cooking, cooling and reheating of turkey meat sent out by Mitchell's and Butler's before Christmas. By early January 2013, the company had stopped using the cooking and cooling method in all its kitchens. Mr Campbell-Tiech said: 'The company could have simply told the Railway Hotel and all the Ember Inns that practiced cooking, cooling and reheating in that December that they should stop doing this, and only serve up what they cooked on the day. 'The cost to the company would have been lost diners - the consequence would have been that the Railway Hotel couldn't have served as many meals as it could operating the system of cooking, cooling and reheating.' Giving evidence Andre Paxi, a junior chef at the Railway Hotel, said only some of the meat had been microwaved before being served. The rest had just been warmed through - but he said the kitchen team had just judge the temperature of the meat based on the steam coming off it. Giving evidence McSweeney said she probed the meat herself with a thermometer before putting it in the fridge on Christmas Eve, but hadn't recorded the figures in official records. She said she had told Kaya to go and 'get on top' of his paperwork on 26 December, which was why the records had been filled out retrospectively. McSweeney and Kaya were both cleared of one count of placing unsafe food on the market, but were convicted of perverting the course of justice for falsifying food safety records. A third count against McSweeney of obstructing an officer by handing over the falsified documents to investigators was dropped. McSweeney wept in the dock when the verdicts were read out and had to be comforted by a member of her legal team, while Kaya buried his head in his hands. Judge Alastair Hammerton told the pair: 'You have been found guilty of this offence of doing an act to pervert the course of justice, it now falls to me to sentence you for this offence and I am going to adjourn sentencing until 8 January. 'I'm going to order pre-sentence reports, I'm not ruling anything out and can I say it's very likely that you will both receive an immediate prison sentence.' McSweeney, of Suttons Avenue, Hornchurch and,Kaya, of Waterlane, Purfleet, Essex, were released on bail until the sentencing hearing. The pub company, based on Fleet Street, Birmingham, was found guilty of one charge of placing unsafe turkey on the market.Â A spokesman for Mitchells & Butlers said: 'We respects the court's decision. We also note that Anne-Marie McSweeney and Memhet Kaya were found guilty of perverting the course of justice. We have taken this matter extremely seriously, and have co-operated fully with the local authority throughout their investigations. Food safety is our highest priority and our employees are required to adhere to these stringent procedures at all times. Our thoughts remain with the Callagher family during this difficult time. As this case is now proceeding to sentencing, it would be inappropriate to comment further.