The daddy of a 7-year-old lady who was stabbed to dying by a whole stranger—an unlawful immigrant from Albania who was affected by paranoid schizophrenia—has criticised the House Workplace for failing to deport her earlier than she dedicated the crime.
On Monday a coroner stated Emily Jones’s dying by the hands of 33-year-old Eltiona Skana may by no means have been predicted, however the head of a charity that offers with victims of psychological well being murder has stated that was “absolute nonsense.”
Skana was sitting on a bench in Queen’s Park, Bolton, on March 22, 2020—which occurred to be Mom’s Day—when Jones rode previous on her scooter.
She obtained up and slashed Jones with a craft knife, calling out, “Mummy, Mummy!” to the lady’s mom.
Skana went on trial for homicide in December 2020 however the trial collapsed and he or she was detained indefinitely at Rampton Hospital in Nottinghamshire.
After an inquest, Timothy Brennand, the senior coroner for Manchester West, stated Jones “might properly really feel and is entitled to really feel” Skana ought to by no means have been allowed into the UK.
Skana, who lied to the House Workplace about being a sufferer of intercourse trafficking when she made an asylum software, had a protracted historical past of poor psychological well being, and had stopped taking her anti-psychotic treatment within the weeks operating as much as Jones’s dying.
Coroner Describes Care as ‘Sub-Optimum’
Brennand stated Skana had suffered from “sub-optimal” care from native psychological well being groups however he stated the system was “in disaster” and he stated he can be writing a Prevention of Future Dying (PFD) report and sending it to the Division of Well being and Social Care.
Skana—who was described on the eight-day inquest as a “psychotic ticking time bomb”—got here to Britain behind a lorry from France in 2014 and was given asylum regardless of admitting to mendacity about being a sufferer of sexual exploitation.
Jones’s father, Mark Jones, refused to attend the rest of the inquest after an skilled witness referred to her as “being within the fallacious place on the fallacious time.”
His solicitor, Sefton Kwasnik, stated Jones felt it was tantamount to “sufferer blaming.”
After the inquest, Kwasnik stated: “Mark stated, in his personal assertion, that if the House Workplace had performed their job correctly Miss Skana wouldn’t have been right here within the first place.”
He added: “She twice instructed docs that she lied in her asylum software, she twice instructed docs and police that she needed to go residence, in 2015 and 2017.”
Kwasnik stated: “The House Workplace provided no clarification as to why they ignored these necessary clues in her presentation.”
In an announcement, Jones stated he hoped “one thing good” may come from his daughter’s dying and added: “We’re simply going to strive our greatest to make a change. We’re simply going to try to do our greatest so Jones’s dying doesn’t go in useless.”
‘Killing Definitely Might Have Been Prevented’
Julian Hendy, founding father of the Hundredfamilies charity, which has been supporting Jones’s household, instructed The Epoch Instances: “The coroner hasn’t gone far sufficient. Emily’s killing actually may have been prevented had psychological well being providers monitored and supervised Skana correctly.”
He stated: “It was abundantly clear that Eltiona Skana had a well-recorded historical past of paranoid schizophrenia, severe violence towards others, together with with knives, and have become unwell when she wasn’t taking her treatment.”
“That was all well-known earlier than she killed Emily. It didn’t solely change into obvious with hindsight, because the coroner appeared to recommend,” added Hendy, whose personal father, Philip, was killed in Bristol in 2007 by a person with a protracted historical past of psychological well being issues.
Brennand stated up to now Skana may need been stored “underneath lock and key” however these days it’s left to group psychological well being groups to supply “snapshot” danger assessments.
He identified Skana had solely been seen as soon as by her psychological well being employee within the 100 days earlier than the assault.
Brennand stated he had “profound issues” in regards to the “morale, workloads, coaching, employees shortages, recruitment, incapability to ship persevering with care, document maintaining, amount and high quality of face-to-face consultations” in group psychological well being.
Larger Manchester Psychological Well being NHS Basis Belief stated a evaluation discovered Jones’s killing couldn’t have been foreseen.
However Hendy stated: “Eltiona Skana was insufficiently monitored and supervised by psychological well being providers, they knew she may change into harmful when unmedicated and unwell.”
“She was purported to be intensively monitored by psychological well being providers, however we found she went weeks with none prescriptions for her anti-psychotic treatment. And no one checked,” he added.
He instructed The Epoch Instances: “Temporary visits of simply 10 to fifteen minutes a month are merely not sufficient to inform if sufferers with a historical past of violence are properly, steady, and taking their treatment.”
Hendy stated it additionally emerged throughout the inquest that Skana’s treatment—which had been delivered by common injection by medical professionals—had been switched to tablets, which she stopped taking.
He stated: “Psychological well being providers weren’t curious sufficient. They merely accepted her lies with out checking.”
100 Homicides a 12 months Linked to Severe Psychological Sickness
Hendy, who retains monitor of circumstances as they undergo the courts, stated there are between 600 and 700 homicides a 12 months in Britain and round 100–120 of them are by folks with severe psychological sickness.
Skana—who admitted to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished duty—was sentenced to life imprisonment and was given a minimal time period of 10 years and eight months.
In an announcement, Larger Manchester Psychological Well being NHS Basis Belief, stated: “We wish to reiterate our deepest condolences over the devasting lack of Emily Jones. Now we have accepted the coroner’s findings from the inquest.”
The Epoch Instances contacted the House Workplace, which stated it was unable to touch upon Skana’s case.
Originally posted 2023-05-23 18:50:55.