Probe into how mentally ill man was freed to kill

DUNDEE: David Reid stabbed best friend Mark Johnston to death, believing he was the Devil

A sheriff is to probe how a patient was allowed to walk out of a psychiatric hospital two days before brutally killing his best friend.

David Reid, 47, stabbed Mark Johnston, 53, who he believed was the Devil, at least 120 times.

Before the killing Reid had told family members and medical workers about delusions that “demons” were trying to harm him and asked for treatment.

Reid was admitted to Royal Cornhill Hospital in Aberdeen but doctors ruled he was not ill enough to be detained for urgent treatment and he left.

He then phoned his sister less than 48 hours after being discharged to confess he had stabbed Mr Johnston to death in his flat in Broughty Ferry, after “shredding” his jugular vein with a kitchen knife in October 2017.

Reid was acquitted of murder after prosecutors accepted he was not criminally responsible for his actions because of a mental disorder.

At the High Court in Glasgow last February he was sent to the State Hospital at Carstairs without limit of time by judge Lady Rae.

Lady Rae questioned how Reid had been able to leave the psychiatric unit and said she expected the Crown Office to get a report from the local health board and hold an investigation into the case.

It has now been announced that a fatal accident inquiry will take place later this year at Dundee Sheriff Court into the circumstances of Mr Johnston’s death following a ruling by the lord advocate that a probe was in the public interest.

A preliminary hearing will take place in April with no date having been set for the full hearing to get under way.

Before the fatal attack, Reid told a psychiatric nurse in Dundee 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.

Reid was able to discharge himself shortly after admission after a consultant decided that he didn’t meet the criteria for compulsory treatment.

He was found covered in blood when he answered the door to police after the stabbing while Mr Johnston was lying dead in a large pool of blood on the living room floor.

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?”

The court heard that Reid, who suffers from paranoid schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, would present a “serious risk” to the public if at large.