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A mentally ill person who killed one and almost murdered a third person has been sentenced to life (5 March 2013)

Date: 05/03/2013
Duncan Lewis, Legal News Solicitors, A mentally ill person who killed one and almost murdered a third person has been sentenced to life

The schizophrenic woman who had stabbed a stranger to death and attempting to murder another has been sentenced to life and would serve a minimum of 37 years in prison.
Nicola Edgington, 32, was found guilty at the Old Bailey last month of murdering Sally Hodkin, 58, and attempting to murder Kerry Clark, 22.
Both women were complete strangers and were on their way to work when Edgington attacked them with knife in Bexleyheath, south London, in October 2011.
The mentally ill woman had made five frantic calls to 999 seeking assistance to be sectioned under the Mental Health Act because she believed herself to be a danger.
Edgington had been released back into the community in 2009 after being convicted of the manslaughter of her mother, had been arrested by the police when she came out of a mental health unit.
The lawyer mitigating said his client was facing emergency and had not been given the help she had asked for.
But the Recorder of London Judge Brian Barker said Edgington should stop blaming others for her actions and take responsibility.
He jailed her for life with a minimum term of 37 years for murder and gave her a concurrent sentence of life with a minimum term of 20 years for attempted murder.
Judge Barker told Edgington, that her behaviour had been "consistent and calculated". He told her that she was manipulative and exceptionally dangerous and what she did was very selfish.
He added that no one but she herself was responsible for her actions and she had made her choice of committing such terrible acts. She had almost had a third murder in her hands he said.
Miss Clark had escaped only with cuts to her hands because of her bravery and quick action, he said.
Edgington was said to have a borderline personality disorder and was found to be emotionally unstable and regularly blamed others for her situation.
She was ordered to be detained indefinitely at a secure hospital after stabbing her mother nine times in 2006.
Doctors diagnosed schizophrenia and she pleaded guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.
But medics at the Bracton Centre ruled she was well enough to be treated in the community after three years.
After two years of being monitored by a psychiatrist, nurse and social worker, her life began to unravel and her mental state deteriorated.

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