Bognor knifeman's mum takes concerns to government

Gordon Brown is among the leading politicians to have been approached by Angela Reid-Wentworth.

Her son, Samuel Reid-Wentworth, was sentenced to be detained indefinitely in Broadmoor high security hospital for his sustained stabbing of Lucy Yates after he pleaded guilty to her attempted murder.

Paranoid schizophrenic Reid-Wentworth had been released from a mental health clinic six weeks before the attack. The Bognor Regis Observer last month reported Mrs Reid-Wentworth's condemnation of the health professionals who dealt with her son in the months before his frenzied attack.

She has followed up her comments by sending a dossier to senior politicians with some of the failings she alleges occurred.

The information seen by the Observer covers 13 shortcomings over four A4 sheets of paper which Mrs Reid-Wentworth claims to have identified.

She said: "I've not sent them all the failings which I believe took place because there are too many of them.

"I've requested that they hold a government or public inquiry into what led my son to get into the state where he could do such a dreadful thing.

"It does warrant the government looking into the matter. There are too many of these sorts of instances in this area. They will not stop unless someone in authority decides to take action for all our sakes."

As well as Mr Brown, town centre resident Mrs Reid-Wentworth has sent her dossier to home secretary Jacqui Smith and Alan Johnson, the secretary of state for health.

It was last September that Reid-Wentworth, who was living in Bognor, got off a bus in Littlehampton town centre and followed Ms Yates as she walked by the bus stop into the Somerfield supermarket.

He stabbed her 21 times in the sweets aisle and was only stopped by brave shop staff and customers.

Reid-Wentworth had stopped taking his medication but hid symptoms from doctors. He had sent a letter to his psychiatrist saying he wanted to kill a girl and drink her blood, but it was not opened in time.

Ms Yates, 20, survived her terrible injuries with the help of medical professionals and the love of her family and can now walk unaided.

Sussex Partnership NHS Trust, which was responsible for Reid-Wentworth's care, said it learned lessons from what had happened. A plan to minimise risk was now in place.

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