Family of murdered woman call for mental health probe

The family of a mother hacked to death by a mental patient demanded a public inquiry today into why her murderer had been allowed to walk free from a psychiatric hospital a month before the killing.

They made the call as Paul Andrew McCleary, 39, was sentenced at Belfast Crown Court to an indefinite term of detention at the Carstairs secure hospital in Scotland.

The paranoid schizophrenic, from Rosevale Meadows in Lisburn, Co Antrim, was detained for murdering Sharon Moore, 30, in March 2003.

The mother, who has five children, was stabbed, mutilated and efforts were made to dispose of her body in the River Lagan.

McCleary had made previous threats to kill and been sent to the psychiatric unit, but had not been subject to a restraining order and had not been stopped from walking free.

He had a decade long history of mental illness and had twice been arrested for brandishing a knife in public and threatening to kill someone.

The victim’s mother, Margaret Moore, said she wanted a public inquiry to be set up to explain why McCleary had not been kept behind bars.

She said: “I want to find out why this was allowed to happen.”

Mrs Moore said anything less than a public inquiry would be a waste of taxpayers’ money.

Even trial judge, Mr Justice Girvan, said there was a need for a review into how McCleary was able to disappear from the psychiatric ward the month before the murder despite having been arrested by police and sent there.

An internal review is already under way.

Mrs Moore said more was needed – a public inquiry that would hopefully set safeguards “to stop something like this ever happening again".

The victim’s brother, Stephen, hit out at the decision to send the killer to a secure hospital rather than a prison.

“He cut her face off, he took her identity, he did not want her to be recognised – but I recognised my sister.

“I was the one who saw her body, I know what he done to her and I know that fellow is capable and there is nothing wrong with his head.”

There was no immediate response to the call for the public inquiry from the Department of Health and Social Services in Belfast.