Officials 'tried to help' mentally-ill killer

Social services in Dorset criticised by the report

A report into the case of a psychiatric patient who killed his girlfriend has concluded that officials did as much as they could to help.

However, the finding has been severely criticised by the victims family who have accused officials of a cover up.

Dorset Health Authority ordered an inquiry into the case of Shane Bath in 1998, after he was convicted of murdering his 18-year-old girlfriend Ayse Sullivan.

The inquiry examined the role of various agencies, including the police, the probation service, social services, hospitals and the health authority itself, which had been responsible for Bath's welfare for most of his life prior to the murder.

Despite strongly criticising the care he received, the authors said it was difficult to see what could have been done differently.

They suggested that the care Bath received had "no direct cause or link" with Miss Sullivan's death.

Describing it as a tragic accident, the report concluded that "those who did have contact with Mr Bath almost invariably demonstrated a great deal of good will and effort in trying to offer him assistance".

I knew that the report would reach the conclusion that it did even before it was published

Michelle Sullivan

"Most of these efforts were thwarted by Mr Bath himself and it is often difficult to see what might have made a difference," it stated.

Criticism

But the victim's sister Michelle Sullivan suggested the truth had been covered up.

"I knew that the report would reach the conclusion that it did even before it was published. People like this look after each other, don't they?"

Another sister Suzanne Sullivan said the family wanted someone to say sorry.

She added: "There was a very big hole in the net and Shane Bath slipped through the biggest hole of all and now we have to pay for the rest of our lives our sister is dead and gone."

The report found that crucial lapses in communication had taken place between a number of care agencies. Doctors, social workers and probation officers were never fully informed about Bath's background.

Bath had a history of suicide attempts, violence, robbery and drug taken. He had been convicted for arson and assault.

He had been admitted to four different psychiatric hospitals 32 times over a 10-year period.

Aswini Weereratne, chair of the inquiry team, said it would be futile to attribute blame.

"Shane Bath was a complex case over many years and to attach blame would involve an exercise in speculation which in our view would be utterly futile."

The report recommended 27 separate recommendations which the health authority has promised to implement.