Failings in double killer's care

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A mental health trust has apologised for failing to spot warning signs in a schizophrenic man who killed and dismembered two women.

Mark Corner was detained indefinitely under the Mental Health Act for the manslaughter of prostitutes Hanane Parry and Pauline Stephen in Liverpool.

A report into his treatment detailed a series of failures by the Mersey Care NHS Trust and other agencies.

The trust said it had implemented the report's recommendations.

Body parts of Miss Parry, of Chester, and Miss Stephen, of Skelmersdale, Lancashire, were found dumped in bin bags in St Domingo Vale, Everton, in July 2003.

Mark Corner's condition deteriorated gradually following his discharge from hospital in 2002 Dr David FearnleyMedical Director at Mersey Care NHS Trust

Corner, 28, from Walton, admitted manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility and he was detained at Ashworth Hospital in December 2003.

At the hearing, the prosecution accepted psychiatrists' reports he was suffering from paranoid schizophrenia at the time of the killings.

Corner had been known to the psychiatric authorities since he was 17-years-old. He was a community patient of Mersey Care NHS Trust.

The report, published on Friday, found the trust and other agencies failed to identify or deal with the warning signs that his condition had seriously deteriorated.

Dr David Fearnley, Medical Director of Mersey Care NHS Trust, said the trust was "very aware" things could have been done better.

Body parts of Miss Parry were found dumped in bin bags

But he said the report placed the main blame on Corner's psychiatrist for failing to use "approved monitoring systems".

The unnamed doctor has since left the trust and has been reported to the General Medical Council (GMC).

Changes have since been made to all of the trust's monitoring systems and the nine recommendations made in the report - eight of which are aimed at Mersey Care NHS Trust - have been implemented.

Dr Fearnley said: "Mark Corner's condition deteriorated gradually following his discharge from hospital in 2002.

"With hindsight it is clear that important risk factors could have been highlighted by a number of different agencies which dealt with him over that period.

"Most regrettably this did not happen."