Nearly 400 people killed by mental health patients in six years

NHS mental health trusts are refusing to say how many of their patients go on to kill, saying they do not want to risk identifying offenders.

Figures provided via freedom of information requests revealed that an average of 65 mentally ill people carry out homicides in England every year. However, this figure is thought to be a significant underestimate because nearly a quarter of trusts refused to give exact numbers.

Julian Hendy, founder of the charity Hundred Families, which made the FoI requests, said some trusts denied the full request, claiming that the small numbers of homicides in question could lead to the identification of offenders.

NHS England was recently accused of attempting to suppress details of serious failures in the treatment of Valdo Calocane, the paranoid schizophrenic responsible for the deaths of three people in Nottingham.

It had intended to publish a bland 30-page summary that did not contain damning details in the case of Calocane, who fatally stabbed Barnaby Webber and Grace O’Malley-Kumar, both 19, and Ian Coates, 65, in June 2023.

NHS England reversed its decision after the plan was exposed by The Times. The full review detailed how Calocane had been discharged with no follow-up the year before the attacks — despite having been sectioned four times, possessing a history of violence, and staff being aware he was not taking his medication.

Dr Sanjoy Kumar, Grace O’Malley-Kumar’s father, warned that “there is no accountability when there is no transparency”.

He said that in other areas, such as maternal deaths, specific figures were published annually. “To not have this information published is a cover-up. They are covering up their failures. These are avoidable deaths.”

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Source: The Times, 20 March 2025