Comment on trial of Ikechukwu Tennyson Obih

Created: 2009-03-19 18:15:51

Marjorie Wallace, Chief Executive of the mental health charity SANE, commenting on the trial of Ikechukwu Tennyson Obih, who killed PC Jon Henry in Luton Town Centre in June 2007.

"This tragic case once again raises urgent questions about how people with severe mental illness can live safely in the community. It also highlights the difficulties in establishing whether a person’s actions are driven by the symptoms of that illness.

"Tennyson Obih had a long history of paranoid schizophrenia, cannabis and alcohol abuse, recurrent delusions and hallucinations and a failure to take his medication - all classic warning signs which should have been acted upon before he posed a risk to himself and the public.

"Homicides by mentally ill people are rare, but SANE's own analysis of 69 homicide inquiries revealed at least one in three to be preventable."

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