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Tom Easton |
Youth worker killed in attack by stranger
Inquiry ordered after stabbing by mental patient
THE parents of a sound engineer stabbed to death in a Finsbury music studio have spoken of their anger at the government’s inability to “protect our young”.
Their comments come after it was revealed on Friday that a blunder allowed a care-in-the- community mental patient to kill youth worker Tom Easton.
Barrington McKenzie, who was under the supervision of Newham social services, was allowed out of a hostel alone.
A few hours later he walked into an Islington store, bought a carving knife and used it to repeatedly stab a stranger, Tom Easton, who lived in Bolton Walk, Holloway, the Old Bailey heard.
An inquiry has been urgently ordered into the circumstances surrounding McKenzie’s care.
On Friday, Judge Brian Barker QC ordered McKenzie to be held indefinitely at Broadmoor Hospital.
Speaking after the hearing, Mr Easton’s mother, Dolores Altaras, and stepfather, Peter Sinclair, said in a statement: “We are among a growing number of families who have lost a warm and affectionate young man, killed by someone with a mental illness in a violent and unprovoked attack.
“Our loss has been all the more tragic because Tom was working at the time, helping others less advantaged than himself play and record their music.
“We are angry that our government can spend billions sending its young men abroad to promote democracy, but cannot protect them at home. This is why we have set up the Flavasum Trust.
“Like Tom, we know music can reach the most disaffected in our society, so we are using music and creativity to raise awareness among young people of the consequences of carrying weapons.”
She added: “If we and other families who have set up similar anti-knife and gun campaigns can save just one life, it will have done something to fill the void left by Tom’s death, and maybe make the world a safer place.”
During the hearing, prosecutor Sarah Whitehouse said McKenzie, 23, attacked Mr Easton “without any motive at all”.
A paranoid schizophrenic who had earlier stabbed a solicitor in the eye with a pencil, McKenzie, of Plaistow, east London, admitted manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility. His plea of not guilty to murder was accepted.
Following the killing, he returned to his hostel and attacked a helper.
Judge Brian Barker, QC, the Common Serjeant of London, said the lives of Tom’s family and his fiancée, Daisy Kirkwood, had been “devastated” by the tragedy. Mr Easton, who dreamed of a music career, marriage and a family, was just days from his 23rd birthday when he died. He had never seen the defendant before.
Mr Easton, of Andover estate, was at work at the Islington Council-run EC1 Music studio in Old Street at teatime on September 15 last year when McKenzie and three friends went to the studio.
They said they were there for a “recording session” and mild-mannered, good-hearted Mr Easton welcomed them. An hour later – “there had been no tension or disagreements”, said counsel – McKenzie launched a frenzied attack.
The court heard that McKenzie had been interviewed and examined by three leading psychiatrists who said he was not the master of his own mind on that day and had not been for months.
Defence QC Paul Purnell said the case demanded an inquiry by the authorities into the “care” McKenzie was receiving. |
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