KEY POINTS:
The family of a man stabbed to death by a mental health patient last year is demanding to know why he was allowed the freedom to go on a bloody rampage.
Kevan Newman, 65, was slain when Martin Lyall went on the rampage in the west Auckland suburb
of Henderson on November 28 last year.
Lyall earlier stabbed shop owner Robert Norcross and attacked parking warden Pes Fa'aui who tried to subdue him.
Lyall was shot three times by police when he refused to put down the knife.
Waitemata District Health Board issued a report into the incident after Lyall was yesterday deemed unfit to stand trial for murdering Mr Newman and attempting to murder Mr Norcross.
The report revealed that mental health workers knew Lyall had stopped taking his medication for schizophrenia and were due to see him shortly before he went on his killing rampage.
The board said the report had recommended some minor procedural changes but it also said they were satisfied with the way staff handled the case.
However, Kevan Newman's daughter Lisa Newman said today the death was preventable and nothing in the report had allayed the family's concerns.
She told National Radio the family wanted to know how someone could be assessed as low-risk one day but within 24 hours attack people in the streets and kill a man.
"I want answers to that and I dare say the rest of the community should as well," she said.
She said there had to be a coronial inquiry.
"Somebody can't die on the streets like that. And for an area health board to say nothing that could have prevented it... I just don't accept that," she said.
The board said in a brief statement after the killing that the care provided to the man was appropriate.
"The events that occurred could not have been predicted.
"Community mental health staff who had contact with the man the day before the event acted properly and professionally."
Soon after the incident it also emerged that at 1.27am the day before the attacks, police visited Lyall at home after his landlady called 111.
She had said she felt unsafe and wanted Lyall removed but when police arrived, she told them she was no longer afraid and did not want him removed.
Police did not call the mental health service but the same evening two nurses from an acute mental health team visited Lyall at home after a call from the landlady.
They decided against starting the legal process for compulsory assessment and treatment but arranged for him to contact his case manager, which he did on the Monday.
They agreed to meet the next day -- in the hours preceding the stabbings -- but Lyall failed to keep the appointment.
- NZPA
