A man was found dead in a canal three months after signing himself out of hospital and going missing.
Lee Radford had a history of mental health problems and was being treated at Peasley Cross Hospital, in St Helens, after being diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. Two days after Christmas in 2019, the 31-year-old signed himself out of the hospital and disappeared.
Staff tried to contact him when he did not return after 15 minutes, but his mobile phone was found left in his room, along with his bank card and the rest of his belongings. Police were called, and a missing persons report was made.
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At around 8.45pm on March 17 2020, almost three months later, Lee's body was found by a passer-by in shallow water at Sutton Brook, near to Gaskell Street. A post-mortem was unable to determine the cause of death due to the extent of decomposition.
An inquest at Bootle Town Hall, on Thursday, heard there had been 16 reported sightings of Lee between January 7 and March 6, 2020 following an appeal by Merseyside Police. However, none of these had been confirmed.
Inspector Sandra Capkan said: "There were 16 reported sightings. The majority were in the St Helens area, some of which we could discount quite quickly because they were investigated and weren't from a credible source. Some did appear to be from hospital staff members who said they were quite sure they had seen Lee.
"Another person said they knew him and had seen him at the bus stop. Another said friends of friends had seen him in St Helens town centre.
"All of these were between January 7 and March 6, with the most recent being from a male who said he was Lee's cousin and he had been banging on his door in Gaskell Street.
"There was also a police officer who believed he had seen him on Gaskell Street on January 8, but on seeing the police officer, Lee ran away."
The case was initially deemed to be medium-risk by investigating officers, but this was upgraded to high-risk on January 6 after a thorough search of his bedroom found a receipt for a length of rope.
Lee, who lived in Whiston, had been admitted to Peasley Cross under section 2 of the Mental Health Act on November 20 2019 after attending Whiston A&E. He was homeless, and had recently been released from prison, where he had been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia after hearing voices in his head telling him to hurt himself.
While living at Peasley Cross, Lee did not express any thoughts of suicide or self harm, but showed "clear evidence of psychosis". He did not believe he was suffering from mental illness, and doctors believed he was deliberately hiding his symptoms.
During his treatment, Lee was allowed to make unsupervised trips out to help him grow accustomed to independent living. These trips were temporarily stopped on December 24 after he returned to the hospital having consumed a bottle of vodka, but were reinstated on December 27. He disappeared later that day.
A jury handed down an open verdict, as there was insufficient evidence to determine exactly how Lee's death occurred.
Coroner Johanna Thompson said: "I would like to offer Lee's family my most sincere condolences. I'm sorry indeed for your loss; I know it has been difficult to listen to all the evidence but it has been a very important process."
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