Christina Edkins: Family reveal 'never-ending heartache' at the 'predictable and preventable' murder
The tragic youngster's family respond to today's report.
"The words you read here today won’t be sentiments you will fully understand unless, sadly, you too have experienced the murder of your child and are left with a never-ending heartache resulting from a crime which was both predictable and preventable.
"On Thursday 7th March four years ago our lives changed forever.
"When you kiss your child goodbye in the morning as you go to work and she goes to school, you never imagine that the kiss you give them will be the last one ever whilst they are alive.
"The constant thoughts we have - 'if only she had missed the bus; if only she had been too ill to go to school' - thoughts that go over and over in our tormented minds whilst knowing that the reality is that she did get that bus and she never came home.
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"On that fateful day, we didn't know that as Christina boarded the bus, everything she'd worked so hard for would be taken away from her - dreams of doing well in her exams and going to university; her hope that one day she would work with children - all destroyed in a heart-beat by a murderer on the streets as a result of failings by so many people, in both public and private sector organisations, which led to this tragedy.
"Reading this report has been extremely hard for us as it has re-opened the wounds we have tried to cover up every second of every day as we go about our lives, putting on an act as if everything is 'normal', hiding our emotions in an effort to appear as if we are coping.
"What makes it even harder for us is hearing and reading continuously that 'lessons need to be learned' whilst knowing that in reality very few lessons have been learned and, over time, little has actually changed."
"It is depressing for us to read that 'despite the high number of reports and inquiries into high profile homicides, many of the same issues that arose in those investigations are identified in this report'.
"What will change as a result of this report?
"We challenge strongly the statements that the homicide of Christina was not predictable.
"For the assessment to have any practical sense, the test should not be whether or not it was predictable that the specific set of facts which did occur would do so in that way and that Christina specifically would be the victim of (Simelane's) act. Rather, the proper test is whether or not it was reasonably foreseeable that (Simelane's) act would cause serious harm or death to another person.
"The simplistic test of predictability used in the report is misleading.
"Similarly, the conclusion drawn that although it was predictable that (Simelane) may kill a member of his family but not a third party is not, in our view, credibly supported by the facts. That (Simelane) increasingly presented a danger to the public and would eventually commit serious harm or even murder was clearly apparent.
It was clear that (Simelane's) mental state was further deteriorating.
"He had twice threatened to commit murder and was left unsupervised and without medication.
"He had a conviction for carrying a knife.
"He was considered as a severe risk to others.
"He was found guilty of common assault and assaulting a police officer.
"There are numerous reported instances of failures to deal effectively with P's poor mental condition; the most egregious of which was the failure to act on recommendations from the forensic specialist registrar at HMP Hewell that (Simelane) be detained in hospital.
"This was highlighted by the prosecution in the crown court as a fundamental mistake leading to the death of Christina.
"The judge instructed that the record of the trial be provided to those reviewing the crime.
"Christina's parents, brother and sister and her wider family continue to believe that failings within the NHS and Prison Service led directly to her death, which was both predictable and preventable."
