Christina Edkins' family express anger over errors that left man free to kill

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2013/oct/02/christina-edkins-man-pleads-guilty

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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.

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.

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, 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'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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

But when he was released in December 2012 no care plan was in place.

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.

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.

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. "

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.

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.

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