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NHS failures over killer 'signed death warrant of my son'
Rob Singh2 Jul 2008
The family of a man beaten to death by a mental patient today accused the people responsible for his care of " signing his death warrant".
An independent inquiry into the care of paranoid schizophrenic Sean Perry, 29, revealed a catalogue of incompetence by South West London and St George's Mental Health Trust and Springfield Hospital.
Law student Perry kicked and stamped Matthew Carter, 22, to death as he walked home in Mitcham in February 2006. He was so badly beaten police had to use DNA to identify him.
Perry said voices had told him to attack Mr Carter. He admitted manslaughter by reason of diminished responsibility and was sent to Broadmoor maximum security hospital indefinitely.
Today a 154-page report commissioned by NHS London revealed he had absconded twice during his first stay at Springfield in 2004.
Perry was a regular cannabis user since the age of 14 and came to the attention of health services in April 2004.
He assaulted a psychiatric nurse in April 2005 and attacked patients and Springfield staff after being detained in May 2005. Despite refusing medication, he was released in June 2005.
The trust said today that nobody has faced disciplinary action. The report also questioned the CPS for not prosecuting Perry over the attack on the nurse.
It came as independent consultancy Verita found the trust's early intervention service had not seen Perry for 10 weeks before the killing. It criticised team manager Nick Hickman, who last saw Perry in December 2005, for "professional misjudgment".
Mr Carter's mother Joanne Caton, 46, was "disgusted and extremely hurt" by the findings.
She said today: "My son's death could have been avoided on so many occasions. Every night I go to sleep thinking about the last time I saw Matthew with boot prints on his face."
Mr Carter's cousin Laura Povey said: "Given that they knew [Perry] was not taking his medication, it's disgraceful. To just leave him there with an odd phone call, it's just like signing his death warrant."
Days before the killing Perry was charged with a motoring offence and appeared "agitated". The report said he was"known to be capable of great violence [but] was not referred for a forensic assessment."
The trust's chief executive Peter Houghton said: "We welcome the finding which is in line with work the trust has undertaken to minimise the risk of an incident such as this happening again."
• An inquiry after a mental patient stabbed his wife .. times found the team responsible for his treatment was "frozen with indecision" weeks before the attack.
Paranoid schizophrenic Thomas Wright, 56, murdered his wife Lesley, 52, in February 2006 - on the same weekend as Matthew Carter was killed by Sean Perry - after refusing to take his medication.
Today the findings of an independent investigation revealed Wright's doctor, Simon Rohde, had visited Wright at his Tooting home and re-referred him to the same mental health team at the South West London and St George's Mental Health NHS Trust. Two weeks later his wife was dead.
The inquiry was highly critical of the team for failing to respond to the urgent referral.
It also criticised its organisational and administrative structure and said of one regular meeting: "Intervention at this point could have changed the course of events that led to Lesley Wright's death."
A Trust member faces disciplinary action and recommendations are now in place.
