Western Daily Press (Saturday)
Mentally ill triple killer sues bodies that released him
AFORMER public schoolboy cleared of murdering three elderly men on the grounds of insanity is suing the authorities – for releasing him only hours earlier.
Mentally ill Alexander LewisRanwell, who wrongly believed the victims were part of a paedophile ring, has launched a claim for damages for alleged failures and negligence in his care.
He was found not guilty of triple murder by a jury after a trial in November 2019 due to the deluded state of mind he was in at the time of the attacks.
The court heard he battered Anthony Payne, 80, to death with a hammer and killed twins Dick and Roger Carter, both 84, with a spade.
The trial at Exeter Crown Court heard Lewis-Ranwell had been released from police custody on February 10, 2019 without a mental health assessment, three hours before his first killing.
The paranoid schizophrenic has been subjected to a hospital order since the verdict but has now launched a legal fight for damages.
He is suing Devon and Cornwall Police, the Devon Partnership NHS Trust, Devon County Council and G4S Health Care Ltd, who he claims all bear some responsibility.
He alleged they all failed to “ensure adequate provision of medical assessment” while he was being held at Barnstaple Police Station in the days leading up to the killings.
As a result, he claims, he was
released from custody while acutely psychotic to carry out the killings.
CCTV showed him being let into the property in Exeter, Devon, where he used a hammer to kill Mr Payne.
Two and half hours later LewisRanwell came across the home of twins Dick and Roger Carter.
He used a spade to kill both men under the same mistaken belief he was working undercover for the police searching for a missing girl.
The jury heard that being allowed to go by the police gave him the belief he was exposing a chilling network of deadly child abusers.
During the trial, his defence successfully set out to prove Lewis-Ranwell was so mentally ill that at the time of the killings he did not know what he was doing was wrong.
The Crown Prosecution Service accepted Lewis-Ranwell was seriously ill but said he should bear some criminal responsibility for the killings.
The High Court claim for damages relates to assessments of his mental health when in custody and the circumstances that led to him being released into the community before the killings. The defendants all deny liability but have all declined to comment due to the ongoing legal proceedings.
The claim cites the police arrest of Lewis-Ranwell on February 8 for entering a barn near Ilfracombe. He was released the next morning, only to be arrested and held again on February 9 for another attack.
He claims if proper steps had been taken at the time he would not have been released from police custody on either occasion with untreated psychosis.
Three of the four defendants, with the exception of Devon and Cornwall Police, have made an application for damages claim to be struck out.
But Mr Justice Garnham has now rejected the application meaning a trial for damages could be held in the High Court.
After his initial arrest before the killings, Lewis-Ranwell was held for almost 24 hours. Police were convinced he was suffering a mental health crisis and tried to arrange for doctors to see him. One officer recorded that he thought the defendant presented a risk to public safety.
A forensic medical examiner did see him but it was decided that a Mental Health Act assessment was not needed because he was not suicidal or psychotic.
He was released the next morning by police without seeing a mental health professional.