Campaigners call for inquiry into 'cannibal killer's' care

Mental health campaigners have called for an inquiry into how a convicted killer was allowed to leave a mental health unit and kill again.

Peter Bryan received two life sentences for the murders of Brian Cherry and Richard Loudwell at the Old Bailey yesterday.

Bryan was arrested at the home of Brian Cherry in Walthamstow last February. He had murdered Mr Cherry and was preparing to eat parts of his body, which included some brains.

Bryan had been under the care of mental health experts and was being assessed for a possible return to the community, when he committed the murder.

Sent to Broadmoor special hospital, but during his stay Bryan murdered another patient. Richard Loudwell suffered serious head injuries following the attack by Bryan in April last year and he died in June.

Bryan had already killed before he committed these two murders. He had been sent to a secure hospital in 1994, following the murder of twenty-year-old shop assistant, Nisha Sheth, who Bryan beat to death with a hammer the previous year. He was freed in 2001.

Michael Howlett, director of the Zito Trust, which was set up following an inquiry into the murder of Jonathan Zito by schizophrenic Christopher Clunis, has called for an independent inquiry into how Bryan was allowed to leave the mental health facility.

Mr Howlett was reported as saying that the case highlighted the problems that mental health services were having in trying to cope with dangerous patients. He told the Guardian newspaper: "We're very concerned. It's an appalling case and is another example of somebody who has been into a high security hospital, been discharged with conditions and has gone on to kill."

Mr Howlett also told the Guardian that the system of community-based care needed to be looked at. He said: "We do not want a return to institutional care but there are people in the community who should not be there."

Majorie Wallace, chief executive of the mental health charity SANE, was also quoted as saying that the "horrific" case showed that psychiatric services were having to take "unacceptable risks" with people's lives.

(KMcA/SP)