Inquiry into care worker attacks

Mental health worker Ashleigh Ewing was in her first full-time job

Independent inquiries are to be held into the care and treatment of two mental health patients who attacked care workers in separate incidents.

Ronald Dixon used four knives to stab Ashley Ewing to death during a visit to his Tyneside home on behalf of the charity Mental Health Matters.

Graham Burton stabbed a County Durham social worker, who later recovered.

Both inquiries have been commissioned by the Newcastle-based North East Strategic Health Authority.

Dixon, then 34 and a paranoid schizophrenic, attacked Miss Ewing when she visited his home in Heaton, Newcastle, in May 2006.

The 22-year-old was found dead in his kitchen with 39 knife wounds.

During Dixon's trail, the court heard he had been refusing to take his anti-psychotic drugs, was drinking alcohol, and feeling stressed because of debts.

He pleaded guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility and was sentenced to be detained indefinitely at Rampton Secure Hospital.

Graham Burton had left hospital two days before the attack

In October 2006 Graham Burton stabbed social worker Claire Selwood six times, after warning he would carry out the attack.

The 37-year-old was left with a kitchen knife embedded in her back and lost five pints of blood.

Burton, then 40 and from Murton, had left hospital where he was being treated for depression and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, two days earlier.

He pleaded guilty to attempted murder and was sentenced to be imprisoned indefinitely.

Both of the independent inquiries are taking place under health service guidelines which apply when crimes of murder or manslaughter are committed by people who have been receiving mental health services.

They will consider, and make appropriate recommendations on, the healthcare and treatment the men were receiving at the time of the incidents.

The final reports and findings will be made public.