Mum killed by mentally ill son after ambulance crew refused to take him
A MOTHER was brutally killed by her mentally ill son minutes after paramedics refused to take him away for treatment.
Helen Harrison, 59, was so worried by Rick Parker’s behaviour she called an ambulance so he could get a mental health assessment, a court heard.
But Parker, 40, answered the door and said he ‘didn’t need their help’ and the paramedics decided he had the ‘capacity’ to refuse.
‘They said they were sorry, there wasn’t anything they could do and they left,’ said prosecutor Geraldine Kelly.
Moments later Parker launched a ferocious attack at the family home in Market Weighton, East Yorkshire, Hull Crown Court was told. He strangled his mother, struck her on the head and stabbed her in the chest with a 20inch kitchen knife.
Parker then rang the ambulance service and told an operator it was ‘definitely a body-bag job’.
About 20 minutes after they left, the same two paramedics were sent back to the house.
They arrived with police and when they asked if his mother was okay, Parker replied: ‘She is now.’
There was a gruesome scene in the hall and the knife was still in her shoulder, the court heard.
Ms Kelly said Parker had beaten up his stepfather Roy Thompson, 72, two weeks earlier in an ‘unprovoked attack’.
He was punched and headbutted and afterwards moved in with a friend because he feared for his own safety, said Ms Kelly.
Parker was charged with the murder of his mother and assaulting Mr Thompson. But he was deemed unfit to stand trial by a judge due to his mental state.
After a three-day hearing, a jury decided he committed the acts.
The court heard Parker’s problems stemmed from a road accident in December 2021 when he was knocked off his bike and suffered spinal injuries.
‘He stopped working and it seemed his mental health went into decline,’ said Ms Kelly.
Parker wouldn’t accept help from his mother and after the attack on Mr Thompson she told him to leave their home.
On March 5 last year mother-oftwo Mrs Harrison and her husband were at a friend’s house when she said she would try to persuade Parker to ‘get help’.
She told the ambulance service her son had been ‘whispering to himself... and didn’t seem to be in touch with reality’.
Mr Thompson drove his wife to the house but stayed in the car because he was too afraid to go in.
She said she would call later to say how she got on with her son.
The two paramedics arrived at 4pm but Parker refused their help.
One told Mrs Harrison her son appeared to have ‘full capacity’ and they ‘couldn’t force him to do anything he didn’t want to do’.
Soon after they left, two neighbours heard ‘loud screams’. Parker dialled 999 and said there was a woman dead in the hall and it must have been an accident.
He said it wasn’t a ‘ desperate hurry’ but ‘I suppose someone will have to come down’.
James Horne KC, for Parker, said he had never been able to give his own account of events in court due to his mental condition. Judge John Thackray KC adjourned the case. Parker is expected to receive a hospital detention order at a future hearing.
‘Didn’t seem in touch with reality’