Man killed wife he called ‘the Devil’ — hours after doctors freed him despite family pleas
A MAN battling mental health problems killed his wife and took his own life hours after hospital doctors decided it was safe to release him, an inquest heard.
Stephen Arnold, 55, posted an alarming message on Facebook at 3am calling his wife Karen, 46, ‘the Devil’ and claiming ‘everyone’ was out to kill him.
His daughter Leanne, who was staying overnight to help care for him, was woken by a phone call from a relative and rushed upstairs to find the couple dead in their blood-soaked marital bed.
Mr Arnold had been suffering from depression and was discharged from hospital the previous evening after treatment for taking an overdose of tablets, the inquest in Cleethorpes, Lincolnshire, was told.
The patient’s daughters had pleaded with doctors at the Diana Princess of Wales Hospital in Grimsby for support and voiced their concerns about him being released.
But medical staff failed to diagnose his severe depressive illness – and there was a ‘missed opportunity’ to properly assess his mental state before his request to go home was granted, the court heard. Mr Arnold passed a ‘capacdrip ity’ test showing he was able to make his own decisions, and doctors ruled he should be allowed to leave.
However, Coroner Paul Kelly concluded that the degree of ‘risk’ was ‘ineffectively assessed’ at the hospital and that Mr Arnold had been suffering from a ‘serious, undiagnosed, untreated mental disorder’.
This resulted in tragedy with Mr Arnold stabbing his wife to death using a kitchen knife and then killing himself just five hours after leaving hospital, Mr Kelly said.
Yesterday Professor Zaffer Iqbal, the author of a report on the case, apologised to relatives on behalf of the health professionals involved.
‘I would like to apologise for our part in this tragedy,’ he said, adding that lessons had been learned and changes in practice instigated as a result. While in hospital, Mr Arnold told his family the attached to his arm was ‘poisoning’ him and that other patients on the ward were ‘trying to break his arms and legs’. The father of two told nurses the drip was a ‘lie detector’.
But medical staff, including the mental health team, agreed to allow him to return home as he was ‘not detainable’ and there were ‘no identifiable risk factors’, the inquest heard. A member of the community crisis team was scheduled to see him the next morning.
Mr Arnold returned home to New Waltham, north-east Lincolnshire, on the evening of September 5, 2016, and initially seemed relaxed, playing his guitar.
Family members had hidden knives and scissors as a precaution, but Mr Arnold still found a blade in the night and stabbed his wife of 11 years in the neck and chest before killing himself.
His daughter called 999 but when paramedics arrived the couple were pronounced dead.
The inquest heard Mr Arnold had an underlying psychotic illness that was triggered by stress at work.
He began working as a school caretaker in October 2015 after quitting his previous job, claiming he was bullied by colleagues and bosses. However, his paranoid behaviour worried relatives. The inquest heard he believed the classrooms and his home were bugged, he taped over the camera on his iPad and thought neighbours were poisoning his dog.
Mr Arnold was due to start a new job with the council – six days after he died – but was anxious about his employer finding out about his problems. The inquest heard his daughter contacted the Open Minds support group to get leaflets about depression on September 2. Two days later her father was admitted to hospital after an overdose.
After the hearing Mrs Arnold’s mother Margaret Snow, 71, paid tribute to her ‘lovely’ daughter whom she said was ‘missed by many’ and ‘did not deserve to die the way she did’.
She added: ‘We believe this was a wholly avoidable tragedy. We have heard there were significant failings in care and many policies and procedures have now changed … We are glad this process is now over. But Karen’s death will remain with us for the rest of our lives.’
‘Wholly avoidable’
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