BETRAYED BY NEGLIGENT BRITISH OFFICIALDOM

The husband of Lin Russell, who was bludgeoned to death with her six-year-old daughter, Megan, 10 years ago, said yesterday that his wife and child might be alive today if their killer Michael Stone had received better psychiatric care. Shaun Russell was speaking at the publication of an independent report which listed "significant failings" in the handling of Stone - a violent drug addict with severe personality disorder problems and a long criminal history - before the murders near Chillenden, Kent, in July 1996.

Criticisms highlighted by the 384-page report were the frequent failure of criminal justice and health professionals to share information and co-ordinate care, the loss of important records, and the reluctance of some agencies and individuals to deal with him. The report said that on July 4 1996, five days before the murders, Stone told a nurse he wanted to kill someone. He threatened to kill his previous probation officer, family and prison officers should he be jailed in the future.

But Robert Francis QC, who headed the inquiry, concluded that Stone's complex personality meant there was no way of predicting that he would kill. The QC said there was no suggestion that Stone was "deprived of any service which would have made him less of a danger". However, he admitted: "Could it happen again? So long as agencies do not co-ordinate their activity, the answer must be yes."

As revealed in an exclusive Guardian story in April, the inquiry found that the Prison Service lost most of Stone's medical records in the early 1990s, that a consultant thought Stone was too dangerous for his community mental health trust to become involved, and that a GP who did not know enough about Stone's medication changed dosages and prescriptions without informing the relevant specialists. Inadequate provision for identity checks within general medical services meant Stone was easily able to obtain drugs by registering under different names.

Mr Francis said the issue of how to deal with dangerous individuals went way beyond the health service and was also a matter for the criminal justice system. "We have made criticisms, some of them in strong terms, but we are unable to say that the murders could have been avoided by a better standard of care in these respects," he said.

But Dr Russell, who appeared at the same press conference in Maidstone, Kent, disagreed. He said: "If everybody had done their job right perhaps he [Stone] wouldn't have done what he did. The long catalogue of failings gives you grounds for accepting that that might be a logical conclusion as much as the other one."

Stone's criminal career saw him jailed for a hammer attack in 1981, jailed again for stabbing a friend two years later, and sentenced to 10 years for an armed robbery. He was freed in 1993. He murdered Lin and Megan Russell in July 1996.

The South East Coast strategic health authority, Kent social services and probation service - which commissioned the report and received it on completion - said most of its recommendations - for better inter-agency communication and improvement of mental health facilities - had already been implemented or were in the process of being implemented.

Lawyers for Stone, 46, issued a statement yesterday saying he was the "subject of a cruel miscarriage of justice" and that he hoped new evidence submitted to the Criminal Cases Review Commission would lead to a fresh appeal. Stone's sister, Barbara, who also attended the press conference in Maidstone, said her brother "never sought to use his mental health in his defence" and intended to continue his fight for justice.

After the murders, Dr Russell moved to north Wales with his elder daughter, Josie, who was with her mother and sister when Stone attacked. Josie, then nine, was left for dead but has recovered. He said: " Why Stone will not admit his guilt and why he carried out the murders are two questions always running around in my head."

The findings:

The report reveals a series of failings in the care of Michael Stone by the health, social services and probation authorities:

* Frequent failure to share information, co-ordinate risk assessment and management programmes.

* Prison Service lost substantial part of Stone's prison records, jeopardising continuity of care after his release following a long jail term.

* Addiction services failed to plan or implement appropriate care package and repeatedly ignored Stone's pleas for in-patient detoxification treatment.

* General medical services' inadequate provision for identity checks meant Stone registered under different names to obtain a variety of drugs.

* Supply of important medication delegated to a GP with inadequate understanding of the prescribed drugs who changed dosages and prescriptions without informing specialist services.

* Shortly before the murders, the GP gave specialist services the wrong information about Stone's compliance with the prescribed drugs regime, resulting in his behavioural assessment being carried out with inaccurate information.

Report here



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