A SUN investigation today reveals disturbing failings in Britain’s mental
health system that have allowed high-risk patients to kill 1,200 people in a
decade.
The crisis has been highlighted by the killing of 16-year-old Christina Edkins
— knifed to death by paranoid schizophrenic Phillip Simelane while heading
to school on a bus.
Simelane, locked up indefinitely last week, had been on the files of
Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Trust for eight years.
But he was freed from jail unsupervised and without a mental health assessment
just weeks before he killed Christina.
SCHOOLGIRL Casey was stabbed to death in a park on Valentine’s Day, 2012.
Killer Hannah Bonser, 26, attacked the 13-year-old in Doncaster. She had a
history of mental illness and had warned her care staff a month earlier that
she should not be around other people because she wanted to kill them. She
was still allowed to walk free from her treatment.
In Simelane’s case his history of violence and warnings from his family were
ignored. Police and health agencies failed to communicate with each other.
The Sun’s probe found such blunders are all too common.
It discovered 1,216 people were killed by patients with mental illness from
2001-2010 — an average of 122 deaths a year.
Patients of the blundering Birmingham Trust committed 20 killings in eight
years — not including Christina’s. Six of those killings occurred last year.
DAD-OF-TWO Gino was stabbed 17 times with a samurai sword by Marc Carter —
a “dangerous” paranoid schizophrenic who was on trial release from a secure
hospital. Gino, 32, died at the care home in Bristol where the pair lived.
Carter murdered him in March last year after his paranoia caused him to
believe that his fellow resident could read his thoughts.
Ten of the 1,216 victims were children. And each year ten of the killings were
random, as in Christina’s case. Figures also show 189 mental patients
committed suicide after having killed.
Provisional figures for 2011 — the most recent available — show 46 people were
killed by mental patients in England.
The figures, in a Manchester University study, also show suicides among mental
health patients are on the rise — from 1,175 in 2010 to 1,333 in 2011.
PARENTS Bob and Elsie Crook were bludgeoned and strangled by their son
Timothy, 47, in 2007. He was living with them in Swindon, Wilts, after being
released from a psychiatric unit. But he had been refused mental health
treatment in the area as he had no GP in Swindon. Despite pleas to the Avon
and Wiltshire Mental Health Trust by Crook’s sister after an earlier attack
on his folks, nothing was done.
Marjorie Wallace of mental health charity SANE said the same mistakes are
repeatedly made. She added: “Lessons have not been learned.
“What is truly shocking and disappointing is that the same factors have been
identified case after case. The same catalogue of blunders are happening,
the same recommendations have been given. And yet the same tragedies are
happening.
“In over 90 per cent of cases we looked at, there was a failure of
communication between one agency and another, which happened in the Simelane
case.
“And in over half the cases we analysed there was a failure to take on board
families’ concerns.”
THE 21-year-old was stabbed to death by his schizophrenic lifelong pal
Michael Harris, on his doorstep in Swindon, Wilts. Harris, then 24,
had admitted urges to hit children and kill others but mental health workers
— who were aware of this — did not intervene. He had developed schizophrenia
due to his drug habit, which started in his early teens.
Experts say the problem is aggravated by the slashing of budgets for mental
health care. There were 87,396 in-patient beds for mental health patients in
1980. By 2011 there were only 23,208 overnight beds available in England. Ms
Wallace said there was not a single acute psychiatric bed available across
England two weeks ago.
She added: “The lack of provision of beds, together with the budget cuts means
health care trusts are taking a gamble.”
Ms Wallace said homicide figures may not have increased in decades — but
significantly they have not declined either.
Many believe the figures do not show the true extent of the problem because
hundreds of murders linked to mental issues are not properly recorded.
JOHN Mearns strangled his partner Pauline to death in a row over beans on
toast. He pushed so hard on her throat it fractured her voice box. Two days
before Mearns, then 54, had walked into A&E and been referred to mental
health services but they released him immediately. Mum-of-two Pauline, 54,
had left her husband to be with Mearns in Cambridge. In June last year he
was given a minimum of 14 years.
Mental health care campaigner Julian Hendy said the whole system is broken.
Julian’s dad Philip Hendy, 75, was stabbed to death in 2007 by disturbed
Stephen Newton — days after his mother begged in vain for him to be
sectioned.
He said: “What is clear is 20 per cent of homicides are completely preventable
had patients had better care and treatment.”
Health minister Norman Lamb said: “Every one of these cases is a tragedy.
Independent figures show the number of incidents has actually gone down in
recent years but we need to do more.
“We want to see better treatment and more of it in the community.”
MARY was killed by John McFarlane with a cattle bolt gun — hours after
begging police for help. Mary, 38, had called police after she
received death threats from the stalker in 2009. But McFarlane, 40, burst
into her home in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, dragged her out of bed, strangled
her and shot her with the bolt gun in front of her three daughters. He had
been deemed risk-free by Suffolk Mental Health Partnership Trust days
before.
BRIAN Marsh was battered to death after his stepson had his mental health
treatment withdrawn. Michael Pedder, then 48 — who suffers from Obsessive
Compulsive Disorder — kicked and punched Brian, 69, to death in a row over
who had moved a sunglasses case at their home in Swindon, Wilts. A report
into the 2007 killing found all those who assessed Pedder had not realised
he and his mother played down his condition. He is now detained
indefinitely.
MENTAL health worker Ashleigh was stabbed to death by Ronald Dixon when she
visited the paranoid schizophrenic in 2006. The 22-year-old was attacked in
Heaton, Newcastle, after she took a letter to Dixon regarding money he owed.
Ashleigh was just about to finish her probation period at Mental Health
Matters when she was stabbed 39 times. An investigation found that the
vicious attack on Ashleigh could have been predicted or avoided if Dixon had
been assessed and detained under the Mental Health Act 1983.
MUM Maureen was killed by her son Mark Tyler when he shot her at her house
in Basildon, Essex. Tyler blasted his 79-year-old mother in the face with a
sawn-off shotgun while she was sat on the sofa in their family home. He then
shot himself in the bathroom four days later. Tyler, who had a history of
drug use, had been for a psychiatric consultation only months before the
tragedy. At the meeting he was told he was “dangerous” and “psychotic” — but
no diagnosis was made.
GRANDAD Philip was stabbed by a drug-crazed mental health patient whose
mother had begged for him to be sectioned. Stephen Newton murdered
75-year-old Philip in a random attack in broad daylight in Bristol in April,
2007. Mental health workers refused to section Newton five days earlier
despite pleas from his mother, who felt “bullied and threatened” by him. An
inquiry found Newton was never properly assessed in 15 years of dealings
with Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust.
The sick are more at risk of criminals
By MIKE SULLIVAN
MENTALLY ill people are up to ten times more likely to become a victim of
crime than the average person, a shock report reveals today.
The study — the first of its kind in the UK — found 45 per cent of those with
severe psychiatric problems were victims of crime in the previous year.
And 62 per cent of the women in the three-year research project had been
sexually abused as adults.
Yet those mentally ill crime victims were “significantly” more likely to
report they had been unfairly dealt with by police compared to the general
population.
Victim Support chief Javed Khan said: “It is nothing short of a national
scandal that some of the most vulnerable people in our society become
victims of crime so often, and yet when they seek help, they are met with
disbelief or even blame.
“This report shows all too clearly the terrible impact of crime on them.”
The study interviewed a random sample of 361 people in London with severe
mental illness.
It also found that compared to the average person, people with severe mental
illness were five times more likely to be assaulted and three times more
likely to be a victim of any type of crime.
The joint study by Victim Support, the charity Mind and researchers from
several universities contains a number of recommendations for police, courts
and agencies.
Do not cut crisis care
By PAUL FARMER, Chief Exec, Mind
MENTAL health is far too often spoken of in terms of aggression and violence.
We must remember there are 1.2 million people in touch with secondary mental
health services — and the overwhelming majority are not hurting others.
But there is concern that investment in mental health services is decreasing.
Mind is campaigning for better crisis care. It is wrong that when people reach
out they do not get the help they need.
People in this situation are more likely to take their own life or self-harm
than pose a risk to others.
It’s time mental health services were put at the heart of our NHS so care and
treatment are of the highest quality.