Stabbing latest in series of attacks by psychiatric patients

The mental patient who went berserk with a knife and killed a man on Monday is the latest in a series of killings by mental patients living in the community.

Auckland mental health workers said in 2003 they were so stressed and burnt out they were counting down to the next tragedy.

The man who stabbed and killed Kevan Bruce Newman, 65, on Monday after attacking Robert Norcross with a knife in Mr Norcross's fishing shop, had been a psychiatric patient for 13 years.

He was seen on Sunday and due to be seen again yesterday but mental health workers said today there was no indication he would get violent.

Waitakere mayor Bob Harvey said today too many mental health patients were roaming the streets and questioned if they were being properly monitored.

He said the number of psychiatric patients allowed to stay in the community was a "big issue."

SIMILAR CASES

* In 1999 Lachlan Jones, a paranoid schizophrenic, killed Malcolm Beggs with a knife and an axe, and then killed himself with carbon monoxide.

* In the same year schizophrenic Johnny Manu stabbed ACC worker Janet Pike to death, the latest in a series of horrific attacks he had committed since 1981.

* In 2000 manic depressive Sean Mitchell killed himself resulting in a coroner saying Waitemata District Health Board staff had failed to monitor him properly.

* In another well known case in Southland, mental health patient Mark Burton was released from psychiatric care in Southland Hospital in Invercargill before driving to Queenstown and stabbing his mother, Paddy, to death on 2001.

He was later found to be insane and therefore not guilty of murder.

Dr Peter Fisher, who released Burton from the mental health unit was found guilty of professional misconduct, suspended for six months and ordered to pay more than $86,400 in costs, because of his inadequate treatment and care of Burton.

Fisher is now facing a manslaughter charge in connection with the death of a patient at West Cumberland Hospital, Whitehaven, in 2002.

Meanwhile, it's been revealed the man involved in Monday's incident was visited by police the day before he went on his bloody rampage.

Police said today the 31-year-old man's landlady called them to her house on Sunday morning.

Waitakere police district area commander, Inspector Mark O'Connor said when police arrived the landlady did not know why she had called them.

"There was nothing to suggest from his behaviour or conversations with the man that he posed any threat to himself or the community," Mr O'Connor said in a statement.

"His landlady did not want him removed from the house and said she did not feel afraid to be in the house with him.

'When the police arrived the landlady was unclear why she had called the police. The attending officers were fully satisfied that nothing untoward was happening."

- NZPA