My mentally unwell son killed his father. Then the NHS failed us

Tricia Monro places two thick folders on the table with pages of psychiatric evaluations, timelines and dozens of emails asking for help for her son. For years she had been trying to catch him as he fell through the cracks of the mental health system.

She had been warned not to be alone with him, but relented when he asked to have a bath at her house in Hampshire in February last year. What she did not know was that he had just fatally stabbed her ex-husband, Peter, 73.

She said she still “cannot believe” how the tragedy has torn her family apart. “I don’t for a moment excuse what he has done, and I accept that he has to be punished,” she said, adding: “It’s a very lonely place being the parent of a child whose mental health has been deteriorating.”

In December Christopher “Kit” Monro, 30, of Oxford, was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum 12-year term for the murder of his father.

The family believe it could have been prevented if NHS Oxford mental health services and other authorities had better heeded their pleas for help. Instead, his mother says she was left in the dark about issues concerning her own safety and felt failed by those in charge of his care.

Their intervention comes as a public inquiry into the Nottingham attacks in 2023 by Valdo Calocane continues to expose severe failings in the care of dangerous psychiatric patient.

A report commissioned after the murder depicts Monro’s mother as “reluctant” to become involved in her son’s care. She is appalled by that characterisation, detailing her repeated attempts to warn the NHS about Monro’s mental state. “I was anxious, and a lot of times uncomfortable, but I stepped in because there was no one else,” she said.

Monro's sister Lara described attempts to blame her mother, 70, who works for a charity, as “diabolical”. She said: “There was a series of red flags raised in the lead-up to this tragedy. My brother was let down by those whose job it was to support him.”

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Source: The Times, 29 March 2026