The family of a man with paranoid schizophrenia who stabbed his parents to death after absconding from a psychiatric hospital have criticised the authorities for not doing more to protect them.
On the day before William Warrington killed his mother, Valerie, 73, and father, Clive, 68, the family sent 11 emails to the Gloucestershire hospital where he was being treated expressing concern about him.
Valerie Warrington, herself a hospital worker, wrote: “I’m afraid for the safety of myself, my children and any others he comes into contact with.”
But William Warrington, 42, who believed he was in telepathic communication with Vladimir Putin and the model Kate Moss and was being ordered by the UK government to kill his parents, was able to slip out of Wotton Lawn hospital in Gloucester on the evening of 1 March.
Staff did not notice for two hours that he had gone and when they finally reported him missing to police they did not warn that he was dangerous.
Warrington caught a taxi to his mother’s home in the Cotswolds village of Bourton-on-the-Water, broke in and repeatedly stabbed and beat her before dragging her body outside.
He ran over her body in her own car and then drove to Cheltenham, where he barged into his father’s flat. Neighbours heard Warrington saying: “I’m going to enjoy this.” He stabbed his father in the face and cut his throat.
Warrington pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of his parents, who were divorced, by reason of diminished responsibility. Bristol crown court was told that he has been diagnosed as having paranoid schizophrenia.
In a statement read out in court, family members said: “In the weeks prior [to the killings] our fears for the safety of the family [were] communicated to the emergency services, Gloucestershire police and Gloucestershire health and care NHS foundation trust.
“We will for ever be affected by the dramatic nature and preventable circumstances. We lost all confidence in the government agencies and systems responsible for managing and responding to mental health crises and domestic abuse.”
An inquiry will take place into how Warrington’s case was handled, and how he had been able to leave the hospital.
Mrs Justice Eady, ordering him to be detained indefinitely at Broadmoor secure psychiatric hospital for what she called “planned assassinations”, said Warrington had psychiatric problems since at least 2016 and highlighted that he had been given a restraining order in 2019 after becoming fixated with Moss.
The judge said “very serious questions” over how the authorities dealt with Warrington had been raised, and added that it must be of “considerable regret” that nobody contacted his parents after he left the hospital.
Anna Vigars KC, prosecuting, told the court that Warrington had been living with his mother in the years before the attack, but became increasingly violent when he blamed her for failing to secure planning permission to develop land attached to her property. He then went to live in a shared house his mother owned in Cheltenham.
On 17 February, he was arrested for attacking a housemate with a knife in the shared accommodation. He had a mental health assessment and was voluntarily detained under section 2 of the Mental Health Act. He was being treated at Wotton Lawn.
On the afternoon of 1 March, he was escorted to a local petrol station to buy provisions and secretly withdrew £100. That evening, he was allowed to go into a courtyard and he slipped out.
Gloucestershire health and care NHS foundation trust said: “As well as supporting Gloucestershire police with their inquiry, we are undertaking our own investigation. The outcome will be shared with NHS England and the Care Quality Commission who will further scrutinise this as per national requirements. Any learning will be thoroughly addressed.”
