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'Cannibal' horror find in flat
By Paul Sims and Rebecca Smith, Evening Standard Last updated at 00:00am on 19.02.04
Sealed off: the flat in Walthamstow
The NHS launched an inquiry today after a psychiatric patient released from hospital was found in a flat in which a man had been hacked to death.
East London and the City mental health trust is looking into how the patient came to be discharged.
The victim was a man in his forties also believed to be a former psychiatric patient. Police said he had suffered "multiple injuries, including some dismemberment". One leg had been hacked from his body and his head cracked open with a blunt instrument.
It was also feared some of the body had been cooked. Police found parts of what was believed to be a human brain frying in a pan. Items including potential weapons were taken away by police.
The discovery was made after a 999 call to a groundfloor flat in Walthamstow on Tuesday evening. Officers were said to have been confronted with a "horrendous" scene, discovering possible weapons strewn around and blood over the walls. One said: "It's horrible. It's terrible in there."
It is understood the patient left a mental ward in Newham on Tuesday morning, to which he had been voluntarily admitted. The victim will not be identified until his relatives have been traced but he is thought to have lived alone in the flat, which he occupied for up to eight years.
One neighbour said of the victim: "He told me his mother died two weeks ago and because his dad died some time ago he was alone now. He had been here a few years. He was very quiet."
The case will reignite concerns of mental health campaigners about the adequacy of hospital discharge procedures. Marjorie Wallace, chief executive of mental health charity Sane, said around 50 killings a year were committed by people in contact with mental health services.
Under NHS guidelines, patients with a severe mental illness should have a care plan agreed on discharge from hospital. It should identify the NHS or social services worker co-ordinating care, and specify what action should be taken in a crisis. NHS guidelines are less rigorous for voluntary patients than those sectioned under the Mental Health Act.
Ms Wallace said the charity was aware of many cases where patients were allowed to walk off wards after threatening suicide or harm to others without an after-care plan being put in place.
In a study of 65 killings involving psychiatric patients over two years, the charity found 90 per cent involved a breakdown of communication between agencies responsible for the patient's care.
Ms Wallace said: "In our experience very little effort is made to detain them or make sure they are going back to a home where they will not be alone and unsupervised.
"Too many leave without common-sense safeguards. The most dangerous time for suicide and homicide is the first 10 days." East London and the City mental health trust said: "We can confirm a patient known to our services has been arrested but we are unable to provide any further information at the moment."
