Mental care killers report published

A report into mental health care killers is being published

A report into the care of a mental health patient who killed a man after he was discharged from hospital is being published.

Sean Perry launched a random attack on 22-year-old Matthew Carter as he walked home in February 2006.

The fitness instructor was so badly beaten he had to be identified from his DNA.

Perry, 32, had been a mental health patient at Springfield Hospital in Tooting but was released in July 2005.

His family warned repeatedly about his refusal to take anti-psychotic drugs and urged doctors to readmit him.

He admitted manslaughter at the Old Bailey in 2006 and was detained indefinitely in Broadmoor Maximum Security Hospital.

One witness who saw the attack told the court of Perry's "kicks and stamps as if the person concerned was playing football".

The same hospital was responsible for John Barrett who killed retired banker Denis Finnegan in Richmond Park in September 2004.

Barrett, a paranoid schizophrenic, absconded from the hospital after a consultant, Gillian Mezey, agreed to let him out for an hour without seeing him. He heard voices in his head telling him to kill and attacked Mr Finnegan with a knife the next day as he was cycling through Richmond Park.

On Tuesday it emerged Dr Mezey is to sue South West London and St George's Mental Health trust for damages to her career for breach of contract.