A threat to all

Raheem Nawaz attempted to kill seven people in an indiscriminate knife attack in Keighley last year. Two of his victims nearly died from their injuries and his rampage was only halted by courageous passers-by who disarmed him.

A court heard how the seriously disturbed 19-year-old fantasised about drinking blood and suffered from paranoia.

What is even more troubling is that a man with such clear mental health problems, and who posed such a serious threat to the public, was able to carry out such an attack.

Today he is confined within a high security hospital where a judge ordered him to be detained "without a limit of time".

However, it should not have taken such a grave and potentially lethal incident to have alerted mental health services to the threat posed by the attacker.

The defendant was known to both police and the local care trust, which launched its own internal investigation following this shocking episode.

Nawaz was told in court that he was responsible for making his own condition worse by getting high on drink and drugs before carrying out the attack.

However, this does not excuse the laxness of the authorities. Time and time again, they have promised to learn the lessons from similar cases across the country. Just when is this going to happen?