The case of Christopher Clunis, a schizophrenic patient who had been discharged from hospital and who stabbed and killed another man, was a “catalogue of failure and missed opportunity,” said an inquiry team. The team's report, which runs to 146 pages, says that psychiatrists, social workers, the Crown Prosecution Service, and the probation service must all share the blame for the tragedy. The inquiry finds that “the more disturbed Christopher Clunis became, the less effective was the care he received.”

Christopher Clunis had a long history of psychiatric illness, including previous displays of violent behaviour, before he killed Jonathan Zito, a musician, at a London underground station on 17 December 1992. Eight days before the attack Christopher Clunis had been found wandering around the streets with a screwdriver …