Suicide verdict on brutal killer in death plunge

Stewart Dawson, 36, was seen by shocked onlookers "laughing" as he fell from Burdock Way, Halifax – the same place he jumped from in 1994 after killing his 52-year-old mother, Angela at their home in Halifax.

A trial at Leeds Crown Court heard macabre details of how Dawson, who had become fascinated with demons, Armageddon and the occult, had disembowelled his mother, a devout Christian, cut off parts of her body and gouged out her eyes.

What was thought to be human flesh was found on the stove of the kitchen of her Mixenden home. Part of an arm and a leg were never recovered.

A police officer described the murder of the divorced mother-of-three as the worst and most bizarre she had encountered in 30 years.

After killing his mother Dawson leapt from the flyover wearing a dressing gown in an apparent suicide attempt but hit the roof of a building 60ft below and survived despite his injuries.

He later pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced to life at Rampton high security mental hospital.

Yesterday a resumed inquest at Halifax Town Hall heard how Dawson suffered from paranoid schizophrenia and had been treated for his problems at Rampton before eventually being discharged into the community in 2002.

It emerged that Dawson of Longroyd Road, Huddersfield, had not been taking his anti-psychotic medication for a number of days before his death.

In a statement 16-year-old student Daniel Knapton said he had been walking towards a friend's house on the afternoon of August 31 last year when "my attention was drawn to someone falling in mid-air".

He added: "On the way down he was making strange laughing noises. He hit the floor on his face with a loud thud."

Consultant forensic psychiatrist Charles Hargreaves told West Yorkshire Coroner Roger Whittaker he had a long personal knowledge of Dawson dating back to 1998 when he was a patient at Rampton.

He said Dawson had made good progress during his years at Rampton and Newton Lodge hospital in Wakefield and during his last year at Newton Lodge he was considered to have made a full recovery from mental illness and expressed genuine remorse.

He added that he had last seen Dawson in September 2008 when, said: "I had no concerns about his mental health and he remained on his treatment."

He received regular injections of anti-psychotic drugs but Dr Hargreaves said a side-effect of these was involuntary movements in the face which could become irreversible and a decision was taken for these drugs to be taken orally.

In a statement, Huddersfield GP Dr Mark Stiles said that following a meeting with Dr Hargreaves in June 2009, "it was pointed out that Dawson was no longer willing to be followed up by the community psychiatric team and reluctantly, he was handed over to us".

Dr Stiles said the intention was for there to be regular reviews perhaps twice a year which would be undertaken by the practice.

He added: "On June 18 it was realised that he had not picked up his prescription or made another appointment. He was contacted and picked up his prescription. He made an appointment for July. I established that he had no particular concerns at that time."

He said the next he heard was when two detectives came to the surgery to tell him the bad news "which was a tragic surprise to me".

Dawson's father Charles told the hearing that prior to his son's death his neighbours noticed a change in his behaviour and there were "signs that he had gone back into the occult, there were quotes from the Bible written all over the place".

Mr Dawson's eldest son Justin was found hanged in 1999.

Mr Whittaker said: "I can only reach the conclusion that he took his own life while the balance of his mind was disturbed."

Mr Whittaker said: "I have had some concerns about whether Stewart took his own life but having reviewed all the evidence carefully and bearing in mind the way in which he jumped and the way in which he appeared to be laughing, the lack of medication in his body, I can only reach the conclusion that he took his own life."