Cawdery killings: PSNI and health service 'chaos' around killer's mental illness

A son-in-law of a couple who were stabbed to death by a mentally ill patient has said the inquest into the killings has exposed the "utter chaos" of the health service and police, which meant neither identified how ill the perpetrator was.

Marjorie and Michael Cawdery were killed in their Portadown home in 2017 by Thomas Scott McEntee, shortly after he walked out of Craigavon Area Hospital.

McEntee, who was suffering from paranoid schizophrenia, had been taken to hospital after his behaviour caused police concern for a number of days in Belfast, Newry and Warrenpoint.

Charles Little, who led the family's campaign to expose the failings of the NHS and PSNI response, has consistently pointed out that McEntee had tried to access mental health services several times without success.

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13 December 2023

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