Murdered woman’s son attacks under-fire health board
THE son of a woman killed by her neighbour in a “brutal and senseless” attack says he believes her death could have been prevented.
Christine James, 65, had her throat cut by neighbour Kris Wade, 37, in her Cardiff Bay flat – just hours before a family holiday to Florida.
Wade was jailed for 21 years for the sexually motivated attack on the grandmother, who had only moved to the Century Wharf flat three months before.
Her son, Jason, has today criticised Abertawe Bro Morgannwg University Health Board for missing chances to stop employee Wade going on to murder. He told ITV Wales he found “holes” in the board’s internal review system which looked into three allegations of sexual assault of patients by Kris Wade.
He added: “There’s contradictions in it, it’s full of holes. The process that the health board have used doesn’t seem to be robust.
“There’s been no accountability, or there appears to have been no accountability for the mistakes that were made. The process the health board have used doesn’t seem to be robust. There appears to have been no accountability for the mistakes that were made.
Jason also said he can’t “get his head around” the time it took to suspend Wade. He said: “From the point of arresting him to his conviction, it took six months. It took the health authority from the day of suspension, to the day of sacking, 37 months for that process.
“How can somebody work a murder trial in six months, but a suspension leading to a sacking, how does that take 37 months? I can’t get my head around that.”
He also paid tribute to his “kind” and “caring” mother.
He added: “She loved her grandchildren dearly. They loved her back. The toughest thing is trying to explain it to four small children.”
In a statement, Abertawe Bro Morgannwg University Health Board said: “Our Serious Incident Investigation Team, which carried out our review, did not consider that any of the issues it identified could have either predicted or prevented Mr Wade’s behaviour outside his employment.”