Axe killing by patient ‘could have been stopped’

Mental health patient Garnet Hooper attacked Graham Rayner, 64, of Taverham, Norfolk, with an axe while he was visiting Hooper at his home in Attlebridge, Norfolk, in May 2006.

The report, commissioned by the East of England Strategic Health Authority, found Hooper, who has since been detained in a secure hospital after admitting manslaughter, had not taken medication for a month.

Hooper put the headless body of retired mechanic Mr Rayner in the boot of a car which was later stopped by police at Red Lodge in Suffolk.

The report, published yesterday, looked at the care administered by the now axed Norfolk Mental Health Trust which found there was no “assertive plan of action” after he was released from a secure unit after nearly killing his father 16 years earlier.

It adds that Hooper should not have been allowed to extend the gaps between medication doses given his past.

The report concludes: “The death of Mr Rayner on May 24 may not have occurred had the decisions and actions of the clinical team been different between May 5 and 24.”