A killer's pleas for help were ignored just months before he murdered his girlfriend with an iron’s electric flex, a report has found.
Michael Heighton warned clinicians he would “flip” and “go berserk” less than a year before he attacked Karen Leonard with the chord of the electrical appliance.
The jealous lover, from Middlesbrough, was handed a life sentence for the 2009 attack in which he stabbed his girlfriend to death with blunt scissors.
It is only now – nearly five years after the horrifying attack – that an independent report into Heighton’s care has been made public.
In a dossier seen by the Sunday Sun, an independent panel found . . .
Heighton was expelled from infant school for spitting at a dinner lady, biting the headteacher’s hand and plunging scissors into another child’s leg,
Claimed the murderous attack on his partner was “unpredictable” despite a string of attacks on ex-partners and their families,
Criticised health chiefs for ignoring his plea for help and said they had failed to properly assess the dangers he posed before Ms Leonard’s murder.
The report found that Heighton, born in Peterlee, County Durham, whose criminal convictions date back to when he was just 12 years old, twice told medics he would lose control in the 12 months leading up to Ms Leonard’s murder.
A panel, chaired by solicitor Kate Virica, states: “[Heighton] was reviewed in July 2008 where he expressed concern that he might ‘go berserk’.
“He actually asked to be kept under psychiatric review because of his past history. He also had a deep-seated fear that he would once again relapse in a ‘spectacular manner’. Despite this, there were said to be, by the care coordinator, no risks in any areas.” It added: “At an appointment in November 2008, [Heighton] expressed concern he may relapse or ‘flip’ as he had done in the past. Despite this the care coordinator recorded in the clinical notes that there were no risks.”
After being abandoned by his mother and repeatedly jailed during the 1980s and 90s Heighton – branded as “high-risk” during a 2004 multi-agency public protection arrangement meeting – was put under the care of Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust.
But he embarked on a string of relationships and launched horrifying attacks on loved ones. During the first, he broke into his estranged wife’s house and threatened to kill her with two knives. She fell out of the bedroom window, sustaining head injuries.
And after he was held at Middlesbrough’s Hutton Centre he struck up a romance with another patient before claiming “if he could not live with her, his life was not worth living”.
In 1991, when she tried to end the relationship, he launched a ferocious attack in which he kicked and punched her and, when police searched his property, a “sharpened piece of metal was found under a towel in his room”.
The report stated he was later branded “a grave, imminent danger to the general public and in need of treatment in conditions of maximum security”.
Now chiefs at the trust have been criticised for failing to act on a string of warning signs that left him free to murder Ms Leonard in April 2009.
Gaps in clinical notes, no adequate care plan, passing Heighton from “clinician to clinician” and failing to adhere to policy were all cited in a 126-page document released by NHS England this week.
Mrs Virica states: “In the panel’s view, it certainly was not predictable that he would act in the way he did on the day in question. However, there were clear signs for a risk of violence towards women with whom he was having a relationship as this had clearly been evident in his past and this was not necessarily related to relapses in his mental health, although he had shown that aggression towards others could occur as part of a deterioration in his mental state.
“It was clear that he had not confided in the statutory mental health team about his new relationship. It was always possible that if more probing questions had been asked, more information would have been available about that relationship.”
Chilling echoes of the brutal murder of Karen Leonard's mum
Detective investigating Karen Leonard’s murder claimed it had a “chilling” echo of the death of her mother.
The 40-year-old’s mum Carol Storey was strangled with the flex of an electric blanket, then stabbed 19 years before Michael Heighton’s attack.
David Hauxwell was jailed for life for the murder of Ms Leonard’s mother in Darlington in 1990. Prosecutors claimed it was no coincidence and that the previous killing “played some part” in Heighton’s thinking.
But a defence legal team told Teesside Crown Court there was no evidence that Heighton had carried out a “copycat” attack.
The 49-year-old admitted Karen’s murder and said he attacked the mum while she was “asleep or at least sleepy” on April 3,.
He hit her to the head with an iron, concussing her, then killed her by strangling her with the iron’s electrical cord, which he had cut from the appliance.
He also stabbed her with a blunt pair of scissors. There was no evidence of a struggle.
Health chiefs: Improvements have been made after tragic case
Health chiefs said they had acted to improve services after the brutal death of Karen Leonard in 2009.
A string of recommendations were made by the panel who made stinging criticisms of Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust’s handling of the Michael Heighton case.
In a statement, Chris Stanbury, the trust’s director of nursing and governance, said: “We carried out our own internal investigation in 2009 and as a result made a number of changes to the way we work.
“We recognise that there are always things we can do better and we welcome this report and its recommendations, which we will use to continue to improve our services.”
One issue raised by the independent panel included the health care team’s “ability to carry out their work, given the demands of their case loads, their management responsibilities and supervisory roles”.
The panel stated: “In evidence, the care coordinator for [Heighton] at the time of the index offence confirmed to the panel that she had a personal case load of approximately 80 clients, management supervision for 20 staff as well as management duties.
“The panel were concerned at the extent of the responsibilities being carried solely by the care coordinator and her ability to comply with trust’s policies and procedures in place relating to the provision of care to [Heighton].”
The panel continued: “Given the extent of her work load, not surprisingly, the care coordinator’s perception of her role appeared to the panel to be self-limiting.
“She saw her role as focusing on social issues rather than the holistic needs inclusive of clinical issues.”
A history of violence and threats
July 1987: Michael Heighton breaks into his estranged wife’s house and threatens to kill her with two carving knives. She falls backwards out of the bedroom window sustaining head injuries.
June 1991: The 49-year-old kicks and punches a fellow patient at Middlesbrough’s Hutton Centre after she tried to end their relationship. A sharpened piece of metal is later found under a towel in his room.
November 1999: Heighton is arrested following a domestic dispute in which he threatened his partner’s daughter with a carving knife and slapped her in the face.
In a police cell he is physically and verbally violent, “howling like an animal and smearing faeces”. Police were required to enter his cell with shields in order to try to control the situation.
September 2000: He attacks his girlfriend of seven weeks and threatens to burn her eyes out with cigarettes and kill her two children. He is later charged with threats to kill, common assault, battery and affray.
October 2000: A Public Protection meeting is staged where police report nine incidents of domestic violence.
The report states the meeting confirmed he “was potentially dangerous towards any female he formed a relationship with”.
Later in 2005: He admits having issues with his medication and smoking £5 of cannabis a day.
The panel states: “It seemed to the panel that past risks, and future behavioural triggers were largely being ignored by the care team treating [Heighton].”
