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Christina Edkins killing: man pleads guilty to stabbing schoolgirl on bus
Christina Edkins' family express anger over errors that left man free to kill
(about 7 hours later)
A man with mental health issues has admitted stabbing a schoolgirl to death on a crowded bus as she travelled to school.
The family of a schoolgirl stabbed to death on a bus by a man with paranoid schizophrenia has expressed deep concern that the killer was receiving no supervision or treatment despite a long history of violence and mental illness.
Phillip Simelane, 23, pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of 16-year-old Christina Edkins in a random attack as she sat on the top deck of the bus during the morning rush hour.
A series of reviews is under way to find out why Phillip Simelane was not being monitored or cared for when he carried out the random attack on 16-year-old Christina Edkins as she travelled to school, even though doctors had warned that he needed help.
Simelane was sentenced to be detained indefinitely under the Mental Health Act. Police said they considered it "highly unlikely" that he would ever be deemed fit to be freed.
Speaking on behalf of the family, Christina's great uncle, Chris Melia, said the teenager would still be alive if Simelane had been properly supervised after leaving prison three months before he carried out the attack. "There is clearly not enough care taken to keep society safe," he said.
Ordering Simelane to be detained in a secure psychiatric unit, Mrs Justice Thirlwall expressed concern that he had not been receiving treatment at the time of the killing.
Ordering Simelane, 23, to be detained indefinitely under the Mental Health Act, Mrs Justice Thirwall said anyone who heard the facts would be disturbed that he was living in the community while so severely ill.
Simelane admitted manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.
Simelane's previous crimes include attempting to stab his mother, Priscilla, and punching a police officer. He had received a police reprimand for possessing a knife when he was 17.
Doctors recently diagnosed him as having paranoid schizophrenia and say he may have had the condition since he was 13.
Police had been called to his mother's home in Walsall, in the West Midlands, 21 times because of concerns about his violent behaviour, the first time when he was just 14. His mother has said she tried in vain to get help for him.
It can be reported now that Simelane had been released unsupervised from prison despite warning signs about his mental health. The killing has led to questions about how he was dealt with after his release and a series of reviews have been launched.
Concerns about Simelane's mental health, his violence and his use of knives were all recorded on the police national computer and while he was in prison last year he did receive some treatment for his psychological problems.
Simelane boarded the number nine bus at 5am, and had been sleeping on the back seat. At one point he was confronted by the driver but told him he was cold, tired and homeless, and simply wanted somewhere to rest.
But when he was released in December 2012 he did not come under the supervision of police, probation services or health services and was sleeping rough.
The driver had no idea he had a kitchen knife, which was between 10ins and 1ft long (25-30cm), hidden in a plastic bag.
The Conservative MP James Morris, whose constituency includes Christina's school in Halesowen said he and the family would be campaigning for a law change so that anyone found carrying a knife is charged and jailed if convicted.
Christina had been on the bus for five minutes when Simelane walked up to the girl, lunged into her and stabbed her before walking down the stairs and getting off the bus. The only other person on the top deck was a 14-year-old schoolboy who did not initially realise what had happened.
Morris, the chairman of the all-party parliamentary group on mental health, said he had met with the policing minister Damian Green and asked him to look into ways that the police, prisons and the probation service can work better with social services and the health service to ensure that serious mental health issues can be identified, diagnosed and treated earlier and more effectively. "Serious questions must be asked about why warnings and recommendations regarding Simelane seem to have been ignored, with horrific consequences," he said.
Christina was pronounced dead at 8am and police launched a huge manhunt.
On the morning of 7 March Christina, a bright pupil who hoped to become a nurse or carer, got on the number nine bus in Birmingham city centre and sat on the top deck. Simelane, wearing all the clothes he had for warmth, had boarded the bus two hours before and at one point was sleeping on the back seat.
Simelane, who was wearing a distinctive jacked with a tiger's head on the back, was arrested at noon when he returned to the scene of the killing and was spotted by officers.
Five minutes after Christina sat down, Simelane casually walked up to the teenager and lunged at her, stabbing her in the chest with a long kitchen knife that he had been carrying in a plastic bag.
Simelane had seven convictions for offences including possessing a knife, assault and criminal damage. From the age of 14 police had been called out by his mother 21 times when he worried her with his threatening behaviour or assaulted her or his siblings.
Desperate efforts to save Christina failed and a huge manhunt was launched for her killer. Simelane was arrested when he returned to the scene of the crime four hours later.
It also emerged after he was caught that a man matching his description had approached two girls on a bus in the area in the same month as the fatal attack.
When doctors examined Simelane in a secure psychiatric hospital over the past few months they discovered – for the first time – that he had probably had paranoid schizophrenia since his early teens.
Birmingham and Solihull mental health NHS foundation trust said lessons would be learned from the case. In a statement it said: "Phillip Simelane had previously been in receipt of care from a number of healthcare providers over a period of years. Our trust's involvement was in the form of prison-based mental health assessments during a prison term in 2012.
He arrived in the UK from Swaziland with his family aged nine. From the age of 14 he began to get into trouble with the police for violence and threatening behaviour. His mother has said he became isolated, did not wash and rarely left his room. In 2012, Simelane served 101 days in prison for pointing a knife at his mother's stomach and threatening to stab her. During his arrest he punched a police officer.
"What is clear, is that there are lessons to be learned for us and others involved in the care of Phillip Simelane to prevent such a tragedy happening again in the future.
He was out of prison for just seven days before being sent back in October 2012 after being caught with cocaine. While in prison he underwent mental health assessments and on at least two occasions a specialist registrar in psychiatry insisted he needed in-patient treatment.
"As a trust we are currently leading an external review, commissioned by Birmingham cross-city clinical commissioning gGroup, on behalf of all the parties involved and intend to report on our findings in December 2013."
But when he was released in December 2012 no care plan was in place.
Since the attack, Simelane has spent time in a secure unit where he has undergone psychiatric assessment.
Because his crimes were not considered the most serious he did not come under the MAPPA (multi-agency public protection arrangements) under which killers and sex offenders are monitored.
At the time of her death, Christina's parents paid tribute to a "bubbly, beautiful and intelligent" teenager.
Simelane pleaded guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility at Birmingham crown court. Through his lawyer he told Christina's family: "I did not mean to kill that girl, I'm ashamed of what has happened and I would like to apologise." He has told doctors that he thought Christina was a threat to him.
"Our world has been torn apart by the loss of our beautiful princess," said Jason and Kathleen Edkins. "It's hard to describe the pain we're all feeling. Her family and friends will remember her as an amazing individual with her whole life ahead of her, a life that was tragically cut short on that Thursday morning. Our lives will never be the same again."
The judge told Simelane: "Your mental function was wholly abnormal. It is difficult to understand how it came about that in December 2012 someone with your level of illness should have been sleeping rough with no one to look after you. "
They said Christina was studying hard for exams and looking forward to her school prom before she was killed. "We'd bought Christina's prom dress the week before and recall the day she tried it on; she looked like a princess. She was our princess," they said.
Birmingham and Solihull mental health NHS foundation trust said: "There are lessons to be learned for us and others involved in the care of Phillip Simelane to prevent such a tragedy happening again in the future.
West Midlands police have previously described the attack as "horrific and random".
Christina's family sat in court, each wearing a purple scarf or ribbon to remember the young teenager, who had bought a lilac prom dress before she died. In a statement to the court the girl's mother, Kathleen, said: "It's too late for Christina, but somebody else's child could be saved by him being detained," she said.
In 2012, Simelane served 101 days in prison for pointing a knife at his mother's stomach and threatening to stab her. During his arrest he punched a police officer.
He was out of prison for just seven days before being sent back in October 2012 after being found with cocaine and interfering with a vehicle.
But because the vehicle and drug offences listed on the indictment were classed as minor, there was no plan put in place to monitor Simelane after he left prison in December 2012. This was even though warning "markers" about potential mental health issues had been put on his police national computer file during his time in prison, flagging up concerns about suicide and self-harming, violence and weapons.
Superintendent Richard Baker, who initially led the murder investigation, said a number of reviews were continuing to determine what, if anything, could have been done to intervene in Simelane's case before he carried out his deadly attack.
Separate reviews are being completed by the police, the prison service and the Birmingham and Solihull mental health NHS foundation trust.
Baker said: "All the agencies in the management of Phillip Simelane are currently undergoing independent reviews to sort out what support he had."
Christina's great-uncle Chris Melia said Christina would still be alive if Simelane had been properly supervised, claiming instead that he had been allowed to drop off the radar of all the relevant agencies.
"As we understand it, it had been said by some mental health experts that he should receive some support and help or monitoring when back in the community and it just didn't happen," said Melia.
"The fact he had been identified as someone who needed help seems to have been totally lost. There apparently are some inquiries ongoing which will come up with information as to what happened and more importantly what should happen in future to prevent reoccurrence."
Simelane's lifestyle shortly before the killing has been difficult to establish, although it was known he was unemployed and sleeping rough. As a youngster he had emigrated from Swaziland to England with his mother and siblings, leaving his natural father behind.
The family moved to Walsall, and although he attended school he was not a regular in classes by the time he was 14, amid claims he was being bullied. He first came to the attention of the police aged 14.
His mother told police that at this time she saw a decline in her son's mental health. He became isolated, did not wash and rarely left his room.
He would not accept he had a problem. In recent years his mother had lived in fear of her son, and would refuse to come out of her house when he came around asking for money, instead "handing it to him through an open window".
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