Murder 'could not be predicted'

George Leigers was not mentally ill at the time of the murder

The murder of a Teesside prostitute by a former mental patient could not have been prevented, an inquiry has found.

George Leigers, 48, was convicted of killing Sarah Jane Coghlan in August 2003, six months after being released from a secure mental health unit.

Leigers of Middlesbrough was sent there after killing his wife in 1986.

But a report commissioned by County Durham and Tees Valley Strategic Health Authority concluded he was not mentally ill at the time of the second killing.

He was convicted in April 2004 of stabbing the teenager to death with a bayonet at his home in Montrose Street, Middlesbrough.

But the independent panel, chaired by Anne Galbraith, a former senior lecturer in law, could not find a motive for the murder and concluded there was nothing to indicate that the crime was imminent.

Sarah Jane Coghlan was stabbed with a bayonet

It did though, have some minor criticisms of the service including a lack of information in the letter of discharge to Leigers' GP and a lack of review of his medication.

It also criticised the fact that Leigers' outpatient appointments with a psychiatrist prior to his discharge were stopped.

Ms Galbraith said: "Although George Leigers had previously experienced mental illness, there is nothing to suggest that this illness had relapsed at the time of the killing.

"The panel came to the same view as the court, that mental disorder was not the cause of the killing.

"There was no obvious need for services and the discharge was entirely appropriate given that he had been followed up as an outpatient for 10 years, four years of which was as a voluntary patient."

During the trial last year, Teesside Crown Court heard how Leigers spent 16 years in the mental health unit after he was convicted of the manslaughter of his wife.