We made Freedom of Information requests to 50 Mental Health Trusts in England asking how many of their recent patients had killed, or were suspected of killing, others for each of the years between 2018 and 2023

Our research featured on ITV News and in The Times

33 Trusts responded in full, 16 gave partial answers, and one didn’t answer the question.

Those that gave partial answers would typically give a range, from which we could calculate a minimum and maximum number.

The mimimum number is 393 recent patients were involved in killings.

The maximum is 505.

And this is a considerable underestimate of the true total of mental health related killings across the United Kingdom, because:

• We only asked about patients who had been known to services within six months of the incident – so those like Valdo Calocane who were discharged more than six months before, are not included.

• This is the number of perpetrator patients, not victims. So if an offender killed more than one person (like Calocane) the total number of deaths is not included, only one.

• And the list doesn’t include those seriously mentally unwell people who were unable, or unwilling, to access effective and timely mental health care from secondary mental health services – (i.e. mental health trusts).

• And we only asked about England – so the misses out cases in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland

It is difficult to make firm conclusions from the statistics, (particularly given the partial answers), but the stats do seem to show an appreciable rise in 2020 when Covid hit.

There was wide variation in the numbers of cases reported by those trusts who replied in full

• the lowest number was 2
• the highest number was 43

These numbers are far too high. They cause lasting devastation to patients, families, and whole communities as well as NHS staff across the country.

We need to do better.

Times 21 Mar 2025