Scarf killer who thought mother was witch failed by health trust
A MENTALLY ill woman who had committed extremely violent offences did not see a psychiatrist for six months before she relapsed and killed her mother during a psychotic episode because of failings in the restructuring of a London health trust.
Regina Edwards, 52, strangled former midwife Priscilla Edwards, 78, with a scarf at her home in Plumstead on February 21, 2016 because she thought she was a witch.
An independent safeguarding review commissioned by Greenwich council and NHS England has now found that “risks were not known, understood or mitigated” when a “cost effective” redesign of community mental health services left staff “confused about how patients were being managed”.
At the time of the killing, Edwards was acting as one of the main carers for her mother, who had dementia.
Edwards had been known to mental health services in Greenwich since 1981 and had been sectioned several times. In 1995 she stabbed one of her children, then nine, in the stomach and leg and spent 10 years in a psychiatric unit. She was discharged in 2006 into the care of Oxleas Mental Health Trust.
But after changes at Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust in 2015, an assessment of Edwards’s risk to herself or others was not done and her care was not continued at a significant level. Investigators concluded that had these steps been taken it was “much more likely that [Edwards] would not have relapsed and presented as a risk to her mother”.
The report said: “We do not consider that it was predictable that she would kill her mother, however in February 2016 she was not in receipt of the previous level of care, and risk to herself or others was not assessed.”
The trust redesign involved merging some health services, grouping patients into new teams and relying more on the voluntary sector. A new clinical information system for the trust also made it hard for staff to book appointments and move patients to their new teams.
Edwards did not see a psychiatrist from September 2015 until after killing her mother six months later. The report said it was “not clear” if she was taking medication prescribed by her GP.
In June 2016, Edwards was sentenced to life with a minimum term of 10 years fo r ma n s l a u g h t e r by d i mi n i s h e d responsibility. The judge made an order returning her to a secure hospital.
In a statement one of Priscilla Edwards’s grandchildren said they were “shocked and dismayed” by the report.
A spokesman for Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust said: “We are very sorry that this tragic incident took place and for the impact it has had on the family.” It said it had undertaken actions from its own inquiry and the review report.