Overview
- On Wednesday the court accepted Patricia Hewitt’s plea of manslaughter on grounds of diminished responsibility and issued a hospital order on psychiatrists’ advice to secure long‑term public safety.
- Prosecutors said Hewitt inflicted 47 stab wounds on Angela Lloyd, a 56‑year‑old wheelchair user, while Lloyd made three desperate calls to a Care Connect alarm and was heard screaming that she was being stabbed.
- The attack came hours after Hewitt received a suspended prison sentence for an earlier assault and minutes after police community support officers spoke to her about her welfare, highlighting a close sequence of missed intervention points.
- Three independent psychiatric reports told the court Hewitt showed clear symptoms of schizophrenia and substantial impairment, and her documented history includes mental illness, drug abuse and prior convictions.
- Lloyd’s family have voiced deep disappointment at the absence of a penal element and called for accountability from the police, local services and courts, a reaction that could prompt formal reviews of safeguarding and community responses to severe mental illness.