Farmer attacked by man just hours before three killings, inquests told

• An inquest at County Hall in Exeter heard how farmer John Ellis, who is in his eighties, was attacked with a stick and a saw by 35-year-old Alexander Lewis-Ranwell on 9 February 2019, just 24 hours before Lewis-Ranwell killed three elderly men.
• Hours before attacking Mr Ellis on his smallholding near Barnstaple, Lewis-Ranwell had been released from police custody after being charged with burglary, despite his mother phoning the station to express severe concerns regarding his deteriorating mental health.
• During the assault, Mr Ellis suffered cuts and bruises while defending himself, and his wife made a distressed 999 call warning police operators that Lewis-Ranwell was mental, mad, and dangerous enough to kill somebody.
• Lewis-Ranwell was arrested a second time for attacking Mr Ellis but was released again the following day, after which he fatally attacked 80-year-old Anthony Payne with a hammer and 84-year-old twins Roger and Dick Carter with a shovel at their Exeter homes.
• Chief Inspector Zoe Parnell told the hearing that Lewis-Ranwell appeared calm, compliant, and lucid during her shift, admitting it was an anomaly that she failed to record his mother's warning phone call in the police custody log.