Care workers today denied they had been duped by a convicted killer who stabbed a grandmother to death in a random street attack after being freed.
Mental health patient Nicola Edgington virtually decapitated Sally Ann Hodkin, 58, with a stolen butcher’s knife in Bexleyheath in October 2011.
In 2006, she was ordered to be detained indefinitely under the Mental Health Act for killing her mother Marion, 60, the previous year.
But an inquest into Mrs Hodkin’s death today heard that Edgington was freed just three years later after receiving treatment at Bracton House, a secure mental health unit which is part of the Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust.
Staff there put together a post release care plan as part of her 2009 conditional discharge.
Conditions included ensuring she took her medication, attended appointments with care staff and subjected herself to regular drug and alcohol tests.
Tanya Biebuyck, a forensic community nurse for the Oxleas NHS Trust, was responsible for coordinating Edgington’s care plan.
She said Edgington’s mental health had been improving when the plan was drawn up and was viewed as “dependable” and would turn up for appointments.
She denied Edgington was masking her symptoms to deceive staff.
She said: “I feel I had a robust relationship with Miss Edgington and feel I knew her quite well.
“I do not feel that Miss Edgington would be able to mask symptoms from a team who knew her well.”
The inquest into Mrs Hodkin’s death opened at the South London Coroner in Croydon yesterday.
The court has heard how Edgington made several 999 calls before Ms Hodkin’s murder claiming “crackheads” were stealing from her flat.
She made several calls to medical staff asking to be sectioned and could kill someone.
She was taken to a mental health unit in Greenwich but was able to walk out and board a bus for Bexleyheath before she was admitted.
Elizabeth Lloyd-Folkard, a forensic social worker at the time, claimed Edgington’s actions were due to her using “skunk cannabis” and denied missing warning signs.
A damning report last year concluded a catalogue of NHS and police failings led to Mrs Hodkin’s murder.
The hearing continues.
