Freed to kill by police blunders: British mental patient who murdered stranger begged to be confined to a mental hospital

One check would have shown she'd killed before

A string of police blunders meant a psychiatric patient and convicted killer remained free to commit murder.

Just before knifing a woman to death, Nicola Edgington rang 999 four times from a hospital begging to be arrested.

A simple check would have told officers that she had stabbed her mother to death in 2005, but no-one accessed the Police National Computer and a crucial opportunity to section her under the Mental Health Act was missed.

Three hours later, she stabbed Sally Hodkin, 58, with such force that the accounts manager was almost beheaded. A second woman, Kerry Clark, 22, managed to fight Edgington off.

Yesterday Mrs Hodkin’s grieving husband told of his fury that the 32-year-old was freed to strike again in October 2011, six years after killing her mother.

Paul Hodkin said his wife and their 40-year marriage were ‘wiped out in seconds by someone who should not have been on the streets’.

He is considering legal action after the ‘chronic failures’ meant Edgington was allowed to walk out of a hospital in Woolwich, South-East London.

The Hodkin family said the tragedy highlighted fears about the treatment of dangerous offenders in the community.

Yesterday a report by the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) highlighted serious failings in the case, including:

* Police did not carry out a computer check on Edgington which would have alerted them to her previous conviction for manslaughter;

* Officers missed an opportunity to use their powers under the Mental Health Act when Edgington tried to leave the A&E department shortly after she arrived with police;

* Edgington’s second 999 call from the A&E department was downgraded because she was considered to be in a ‘place of safety’ and an officer was not asked to return despite Edgington saying she could be very dangerous;

* The police contacted the hospital only after her fourth 999 call.

IPCC commissioner Sarah Green said it was of ‘great concern’ that police did not carry out a computer check. ‘Nicola Edgington had a violent history linked to her mental health problems and was evidently aware that she was a threat to others.

‘She made repeated phone calls to police asking to be sectioned under the Mental Health Act and warned officers in person of the risk she posed to those around her.

‘While our investigation found that no police officers or staff breached the code of conduct, it is of great concern that no Police National Computer check was carried out which would have immediately alerted them to Edgington’s violent history.’
Hour by hour, the missed chances

It has also emerged that the Oxleas NHS Trust, which recommended Edgington’s release in 2009, has cared for 12 other patients who went on to kill. Oxleas chief executive Stephen Firn said none of the other killings had involved random attacks on strangers, and the trust said the numbers were not disproportionately high in comparison to other London mental health trusts.

Edgington, a former private school pupil, was ordered to be detained indefinitely under the Mental Health Act after killing her mother.

But she was released after a recommendation for her to be discharged into the community was rubber-stamped by the Ministry of Justice. The mother of two spiralled into ‘freefall relapse’, and in October 2011, she dialled 999 and told police: ‘The last time I was feeling like this, I killed someone. I killed my mum.’

She was allowed to walk out of the hospital and catch a bus to Bexleyheath, Kent, where she bought a £2 kitchen Asda knife and launched a terrifying attack on Miss Clark. Edgington then stole a 12-inch butcher’s knife and killed Mrs Hodkin.

In the Old Bailey, she was given a double life sentence for the murder of Mrs Hodkin, and the attempted murder of Miss Clark, and was told she would serve a minimum of 37 years. The former prostitute and pole dancer had attempted to blame her actions on paranoid schizophrenia, and asked the court to accept a guilty plea to manslaughter with diminished responsibility.

But prosecutors produced evidence that her diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia was wrong and that she should be convicted of murder.

Trial judge the Recorder of London Brian Barker said: ‘You are manipulative and exceptionally dangerous. You made your choice and the fact is these were terrible acts for which you must take responsibility.’

Original report here




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