Killer 'made threats to former partner'

Victims Rachael Slack, 38, and her 23-month-old son Auden were stabbed to death at their country cottage in the rural Derbyshire village of Holbrook on Tuesday morning.

The 44-year-old man, known only as Andrew, then turned the knife on himself.

Yesterday a friend of Ms Slack's, Sahiqa Raja, said the mother had tried to help the boy's father as he battled depression.

She said: "This tragedy has happened because this person was mentally unstable. This has been going on for three years and she has highlighted it to the authorities.

"He has had depression for a very long time and she has tried to help him.

"It's a tragedy that this happened and it certainly could have been stopped. This person should have been sectioned. He was arrested last week for threatening to kill her and he has been let out to do just that.

"Someone, somewhere is accountable for what has happened. Something should have been done."

Ms Raja said she had visited Ms Slack, who had started a new relationship with another man, last month.

Earlier, a neighbour said she witnessed frenzied knife attack at Ms Slack's three-storey Victorian cottage in the picturesque village of Holbrook, near Belper in Derbyshire.

Norma Way, 70, said she saw the mother, who had worked as an artist and had lived in London, screaming for help from the window of her cottage.

Yesterday there was still a police cordon around the cottage and Ms Slack's black Renault Scenic, with a baby seat in the back, was outside.