A woman with schizophrenia has been given a hospital order for killing a disabled woman in her sheltered accommodation bungalow in Newton Aycliffe, County Durham, hours after being given a suspended prison sentence.
Patricia Hewitt, 42, stabbed Angela Lloyd, 56, 47 times on August 13 last year. Hewitt denied murder but admitted manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility. The plea was accepted after a review by three psychiatrists, the court heard.
Background and sentencing
Teesside Crown Court heard that Hewitt had a history of mental illness, drug abuse, and criminal convictions. The judge heard a psychiatrist's recommendation that a hospital order would ensure "long-term public safety."
Ms Lloyd's family expressed disappointment with the hospital order, saying they "believed there should be a penal element."
Events leading to the attack
The court heard that the day before the killing, Hewitt was arrested for punching a woman in the head. She pleaded guilty and received a suspended sentence. She then went to her sister's house, where she was described as "flustered and talking in riddles."
Later, police community support officers spoke to Hewitt after a man reported she tried to enter his garden. They offered her a lift home. She left the area at around 6.30pm after a Morrisons worker told her to stop stealing wine.
Minutes later, 100 metres away, Ms Lloyd made three calls to a Care Connect alarm service. The calls were unclear, but a later transcription revealed Ms Lloyd screaming for help and saying she had an intruder. She said she was being stabbed to death, and the defendant could be heard shouting "where's your money."
Aftermath and family statement
When Ms Lloyd's carer arrived, she found her unresponsive on the kitchen floor, with the Care Connect handset in one hand and prayer beads in the other. Hewitt returned to her sister's, described as "increasingly agitated and incoherent."
Statements from Ms Lloyd's brothers described her as a devoted Catholic who lived a simple life and devoted time to local charities. Joseph Lloyd said she was "taken away too soon by Patricia Hewitt for the sake of money."
The court heard from a psychiatrist that Hewitt had shown clear symptoms of schizophrenia that were "missed or very much downplayed."
In a statement, Ms Lloyd's family said: "Angela was a lovely woman. Kind, generous and always thinking of others, she truly was a ray of sunshine. We miss her terribly every day. Angela was disabled, used a wheelchair and was extremely vulnerable. She died, unprotected, in the most violent and awful way possible. The fact that her repeated calls for help went unanswered, and that she was stabbed 47 times, unable to escape or help herself in any way, haunts us every day. It is the stuff of nightmares. We know the offender was known to be dangerous, with a long history of drug abuse, repeated offending, and violence… Her responsibility for this awful crime may be diminished – but it is not extinguished."
They added: "We are left with many questions about how this awful situation came about. We are particularly concerned about the actions or inaction of all the organisations that failed so badly to protect Angela from such a violent and dangerous criminal. Angela was let down, she deserved much better."
