LET LOOSE ..THEN THE DEVIL TOLD HIM TO KILL
Patient slaughtered pal 2 days after being released
A PATIENT discharged by a psychiatric hospital killed his best friend two days later.
David Reid, 46, knifed Mark Johnston, 53, at least 120 times after “the Devil told me to stab him”. A probe has been launched into the case.
He was my only friend. I can’t believe what I’ve done DAVID REID WHEN POLICE ARRIVED AT BLOODBATH FLAT
A PROBE has been launched into how a patient was allowed to walk out of a psychiatric hospital two days before brutally killing his best friend.
David Reid stabbed Mark Johnston, 53, who he believed was the Devil, at least 120 times.
In the days leading up to the bloodbath, he had told family members and professionals about his delusions that “demons” were trying to harm him.
Reid was admitted to Royal Cornhill Hospital in Aberdeen but doctors decided the troubled 46-year-old wasn’t ill enough to be detained for urgent treatment.
He phoned his sister less than 48 hours after being discharged to confess that he had stabbed his friend to death in his flat in Broughty Ferry, near Dundee, after “shredding” his jugular vein with a kitchen knife.
Reid was acquitted of murder last week after the prosecution accepted that he was “not criminally responsible for his actions by reason of mental disorder”.
The High Court in Livingston heard Reid was covered in blood when he answered the door to police who arrived at his flat in October last year.
Mark was lying dead in a large pool of blood on the living room floor with “in excess of 120 stab wounds” all over his body.
Reid told police: “I feel terrible. The Devil told me I had two hours to stab him. I got a knife from the kitchen and sat there.
“He was my only friend. I can’t believe what I’ve done. I stabbed him. What will his family think?”
Before the lethal attack, Reid told a psychiatric nurse in Dundee that he was “receiving messages from God”.
A decision was made to admit him to hospital and two NHS Tayside staff then escorted him in a taxi to Aberdeen, because no psychiatric beds were available locally.
But Reid was able to discharge himself shortly after admission – after a consultant decided that he didn’t meet the criteria for compulsory treatment.
Two days later, on October 21 last year, he killed his best friend.
On that day, a worker at the Anchor House homeless unit in Perth got a phone call from Reid’s sister, who had previously stayed there. She couldn’t make out what was being said, so Reid’s sister passed the phone to her partner, who told the worker Reid had phoned to say he had “stabbed his friend because he thought he was the Devil”. The worker phoned the police. Judge Lady Rae questioned how Reid, who has now been detained in the State Hospital at Carstairs, Lanarkshire, had been able to leave the psychiatric unit in Aberdeen.
She said she expected the Crown Office to get a report from the local health board and hold a criminal investigation into the circumstances.
She added: “There are concerns. It might be there was no failure or blame – there is no evidence for that – but there are concerns.
“I don’t prejudge things but a man who is sufficiently ill to be accompanied by two members of staff to a psychiatric hospital clearly has a history.
“He’s allowed to leave and two days later this occurs. I’d have thought it should be investigated.”
Prosecutor Brian Robertson told the court: “The Scottish Fatalities Investigation Unit will in due course receive a report from the NHS trust in relation to the decision made.
“My understanding of the position at present is that it is considered likely that there are criticisms about the actions taken.”
The Scottish Tories’ mental health spokeswoman Annie Wells said: “It’s bad enough that there was no capacity to keep him in one of Scotland’s major cities but the fact he was able to walk free from another unit in this way compounds the series of failings.
“As a result, a man is dead and another is now likely never to be released.
“An urgent review is needed to find out why these failings occurred and how they can be avoided in future.”
NHS Grampian said they could not discuss individual cases but confirmed they had carried out “adverse event reviews” into the case.