Man 'devastated' by vicar killing

Geraint Evans had written his plans for the killing on his computer

The mother of the man who stabbed to death Father Paul Bennett outside his south Wales vicarage a year ago, says her son feels "devastated".

Caroline Evans' son Geraint, 24, is a paranoid schizophrenic and is detained at a high security psychiatric unit.

Evans pleaded guilty to manslaughter on diminished responsibility but she said he wished he had died instead.

The assembly government has ordered an investigation into why Evans was not identified as a threat.

Evans, who was obsessed with the devil and God, is to be detained indefinitely following the case at Cardiff Crown Court last October.

He lived in a flat overlooking the vicarage of St Fagan's Church at Trecynon, Aberdare and had written his plans for the killing on his computer.

When those voices came and took over him he was horrendous. I used to look at him and think how can I help him? What can I do? Caroline Evans

He repeatedly stabbed Father Bennett, 59 and a married father-of-two, on 14 March 2007 yards from the church in front of his wife.

Caroline Evans told BBC Radio Wales she and her son both wish they could turn the clock back and that she also felt responsible for the death.

"He is devastated by it," she said. "He asks "why didn't I die after taking all those cans." He was hoping rather than taking someone else's life, he would have died."

"Hindsight is a wonderful thing. He himself then would have been man enough to go off and get the help he needed. He knew he was ill more than anyone else or myself.

"He just kept on holding it in and it got worse."

'Close the doors'

Mrs Evans welcomed the inquiry, which will be carried out by Health Inspectorate Wales, and will look into why Evans was not known to mental health services.

She will give evidence and said there were questions she wanted answered including why her son was not offered help when he slit his throat outside the vicarage before the killing.

"Everybody just seemed to close the doors," said Mrs Evans who says she still loves her son and does not believe that he is evil.

"Nobody seemed interested and in my view, okay, people slit their wrists and they get sectioned. But my son slit his throat with a stanley blade.

"They just put him in an ambulance and sent him over to the hospital. Geraint walked out of the hospital and came back home to the flat."

A church service was held to remember Father Paul Bennett

Mrs Evans said he had gone to school until he got in with the "wrong crowd" and admitted he had fought with his siblings as he grew up.

In October, the court heard that Evans had been in and out of care and had been in a young offenders institute.

He had also used cannabis and inhaled lighter fuel since his early teens, the court was told.

Mrs Evans said it was in 2005 that she first realised her son was seriously troubled. He told her he had been hearing voices and believed he was God.

She invited members of a church to her home to speak to him and later she said he seemed to settle down.

"I never thought there was anything, I thought Geraint had got better," she said.

Horrendous

But immediately after the killing, Mrs Evans said she went to her flat and found 29 lids of aerosol cans that her son had been inhaling - a habit which she was only partially aware of.

She said there were two sides to her son - good and bad - and it had been horrendous living with the "bad Geraint".

"But the good Geraint was the most loving, wonderful child a mother could ever wish for," she said.

"But when those voices came and took over him he was horrendous. I used to look at him and think how can I help him? What can I do?"

Mrs Bennett warned other parents whose children might have similar problems to be vigilant.

"Fight and get the help that I never had," she said.

"I would never like any other family to go through what myself and Mrs Bennett have to go through because it is horrendous."