At least 30 dangerous mental health patients released from high-security hospitals have later gone on to kill, a Telegraph investigation has revealed.
The findings raise serious concerns about the system used to detain and release violent offenders deemed too mentally unwell to serve prison sentences.
Each year, around 250 offenders are sent to secure institutions such as Broadmoor, Rampton and Ashworth after judges rule they are not fit for prison.
In many cases, including that of Nottingham killer Valdo Calocane, offenders are told their mental state is so severe that they may never be released.
Majority freed within years
However, figures obtained by The Telegraph show that 55 percent of those placed in secure hospitals are released within five years, rising to almost 90 percent within ten years and 99 percent within 20 years.
Data covering the period from 1993 to 2019 shows that 30 patients released from high-security mental health units later committed murder.
Each year, about 500 patients are released from high or medium security mental health facilities through a process that operates with limited public oversight.
Patients who show signs of improvement while detained can apply to be considered for release.
Their cases are reviewed by an independent mental health tribunal made up of three members, typically a judge, a psychiatrist and a mental health professional.
Closed hearings and serious crimes
Unlike parole hearings, tribunal proceedings are held entirely in private, with no access for the public or the media. Families of victims are also excluded.
Some of those granted release have been convicted of the most serious offences, including murder.
Concerns have also been raised about the number of released patients who later breach conditions. Around 300 people are recalled each year due to behaviour concerns or rule violations.
Since 1993, at least 33 murders have been committed by individuals previously released from secure hospitals.
Among them was Lee Sowerby, who was twice given indefinite hospital orders and twice released, before killing his mother in 2017.
Another case involved Theodore Johnson, who killed two wives, spent just two years in a secure hospital, and later went on to kill again.
Calls for reform from victims’ families
Emma Webber, whose son Barnaby was killed in the Nottingham attacks in June 2023 alongside Grace O’Malley-Kumar and Ian Coates, has called for urgent changes to the tribunal system.
Calocane admitted manslaughter by diminished responsibility and was given an indefinite hospital order, with the court stating he was unlikely to be released.
Mrs Webber has challenged that portrayal, arguing the public was misled about the reality of his detention.
She said the suggestion he would remain locked up for life was “patently and demonstrably not true”.
She told The Telegraph: “I found the way that it was presented publicly in the sentencing hearing as ‘he’s going to be away for the rest of his life, so that’s him off the streets’ to be misleading.
“If the judge, Mr Justice Turner, had said, ‘In reality you are going to the hospital system, which is the care system, and you will not be released until it is deemed appropriate that you can be released. However that may be within five years, 10 years, 20 years, or indefinitely’, I think the public would be horrified.”
Concerns over future release
Mrs Webber warned that Calocane could be freed far sooner than many expect.
She said: “Valdo Calocane has gone to hospital and is very likely to be out because we already know he’s responding to treatment. This is a triple murderer who tried to murder three other people and could have gone on to do more.
“The very people that are going to be allowed to make the decision on whether to release the murderer of my son are from the very professions that failed on countless opportunities to treat him, manage him, cope with him, and to section him.
“So how can there be any faith that they can be relied upon to do their jobs properly when countless others didn’t do theirs?
“Unless we make him the next Ian Brady and make it so that he is in the one per cent that does not get released, he could be out within 10 years.”
Victims and their families are permitted to submit written statements, but are not allowed to attend tribunal hearings and are given minimal information following a release decision.
Mrs Webber said: “The opportunity to submit a victim impact statement is not worth the paper it is written on. How do you begin to quantify that impact?
“You’re not allowed to sit in on any of the discussions, any of the considerations. You aren’t allowed to physically be there. It’s a piece of paper that gets read out on your behalf.”
Calls for sentencing changes
The Webber family is also calling for greater use of hybrid sentences, allowing offenders to be transferred to prison once their mental health stabilises.
Mrs Webber said: “We, as a group of families, have never disputed Calocane was seriously unwell. Of course he was seriously unwell.
“But the element of diminished responsibility doesn’t mean that it’s extinguished responsibility, he is still a criminal and a very serious criminal.”
Julian Hendy, from the charity Hundred Families, said mental health tribunals operate as secret courts within the justice system.
He said: “I know that when seriously mentally ill people who kill others are given hospital orders they are detained ‘indefinitely’ under the Mental Health Act. Indefinite sounds like a very long time indeed, but often it’s not.
“And many judges seem to be either ignorant or badly misinformed about the actual length of the detention of such offenders.
“I know from considerable experience that most mentally ill killers on hospital orders will typically be released back into the community within just five to 10 years.”