The family of a retired butcher who was killed while walking his dog have told of their 'nightmare' as his attacker, a psychiatric patient, is now let out on visits.
Lewis Stone, 71, was on holiday in the seaside Welsh village of Borth, Ceredigion, in February 2019 when he was repeatedly stabbed by David Fleet, then 21.
Fleet, who suffers schizophrenia, had been released from a secure psychiatric unit - a move his own mother questioned at the time - just ten days beforehand.
After three months of fighting for his life, Mr Stone sadly died from his injuries.
Six years on, his family have been told Fleet will be allowed overnight leave from the secure psychiatric unit he has been held in indefinitely since pleading guilty to manslaughter due to diminished responsibility.
Fleet set upon Mr Stone because he heard voices in his head saying they were going to kill him and take over his brain if he did not attack someone, the court heard at his sentencing.
Mr Stone's stepdaughter Vicki Lindsay has now dubbed the attack itself 'just the beginning of our nightmare', saying she was not shocked when she was told yesterday about Fleet's overnight release: 'It's been kicks in the teeth throughout.'
She added: 'Whoever makes these decisions doesn't consider my family at all, it's like they are sticking a middle finger up at us and saying "deal with it". I just hope my fears don't run true that he does it again.'
Ms Lindsay said: 'I thought that February 28, 2019, when Lewis was attacked, and the three months that followed before he died from his injuries, was the worst period of our lives.
'Little did I know however that that was just the beginning of our nightmare. As victims, we have been treated disgracefully.
'We still do not know why the killer was released 10 days before he attacked Lewis, who made that decision and why, and who is going to be held accountable for it.
'We have been kept completely in the dark and treated like dirt on the bottom of the NHS's shoes.
'But as if all that were not bad enough, only six years on, we now get to live knowing that the killer is now allowed out at night-time and will surely be released permanently soon.
'What kind of a country is this that we live in where victims of killings are treated like this?
'In Lewis's name, our family will not stop fighting until we get justice for him and those responsible for his death are held to account.'
The decision to release people on indefinite detention, such as Fleet, is made by the Ministry of Justice, acting on behalf of the Secretary of State Shabana Mahmood.
At around 9.20am on February 28, 2019, Mr Stone left his holiday home in the Welsh village of Borth where he had been staying with his wife, Elizabeth, to walk his dog, Jock.
Some 20 minutes later, on the banks of the River Leri, he came across Fleet at random, who stabbed him several times.
Fleet had been detained under the Mental Health Act in October 2018 but was sent home ten days before the attack - despite his mother raising concerns about his release.
After her son killed Mr Stone, Sharon Lees told the BBC she had been terrified when her son was sent home after being detained for just four months.
She said: ‘I just cried because I just don’t know how I’m going to cope...he’s over 6ft tall; I can’t stop him from going out.’
Recalling the dreadful day Fleet’s behaviour spiralled, Ms Lees said she ‘knew’ something awful had happened.
She recalled: ‘I’m trying to phone him, trying to message him…I looked out of the back window and I could see the air ambulance.
‘I just remember having this really sinking feeling. Like I knew.’
The Welsh village of Borth, Ceredigion, where the attack happened
She described the frightening deterioration of his mental health before he was first detained, including a terrifying incident in which he had ‘severely self-harmed’ in his room.
This saw him prescribed anti-psychotic medication - but his mental health still worsened.
She said: ‘He seemed to think that we’d put something on his head to erase his memory. It was like he was seeing things that weren’t there.
‘It was clear that he was in psychosis. He started asking bizarre questions about someone watching us.
‘Eventually he said to me that he thought he might have to kill someone because “people are watching us, there was hidden cameras everywhere and nowhere is safe” - that was when I said he had to come with me to hospital.
‘We had to prise the knife off him to get him into the car and get him into hospital.’
Fleet was allowed to come home for visits during his four-month detention, despite his mother claiming to have warned hospital staff he was looking for knives.
The Stone family found out Fleet would be let out on overnight leave on Thursday.
The Stone family's adviser and former NHS lawyer Radd Seiger said it was 'frankly outrageous' they were told about Fleet being let out on visits on the same day as they called for the NHS to publish its reports
On the same day, Ms Lindsay called on the NHS to publish its internal reports on Fleet - so she and her family can understand why decisions were made and ensure lessons are learned.
But Sharon Daniel, Hywel Dda University Health Board's director of nursing, quality and patient experience, has said the board would not be making reports public.
The Stone family's adviser and former NHS lawyer Radd Seiger said it was 'frankly outrageous' they were told about Fleet being let out on visits on the same day as they called for the NHS to publish its reports.
He said the family's demand for the reports' publication was a 'request for the most basic of human rights for victims of mental health-related homicide'.
Specifically, he explained these are the rights 'to understand what went so badly wrong in the lead up to Lewis' killing and why on earth such an ill person was released on to the streets and left free to wreak havoc'.
He concluded: 'Actions have consequences.'
According to a BBC Wales investigation, a copy of an internal health board report into Fleet's care before the attack revealed that three weeks before the stabbing, a doctor had warned he was not ready to leave hospital because of his 'worsening mental state'.
It also referenced the 'risks he posed with knives'.
However, he was sent home without his risk assessment being updated.
On the day of the incident, Fleet did not receive a dose of his anti-psychotic medication.
Mr Stone's family's wish to see reports on Fleet follows NHS England's reversal of its decision not to publish a full report into the care received by Nottingham triple killer Valdo Calocane—who also suffered from schizophrenia.
That report—which was published in full instead of in summary in February—exposed failings in Calocane's treatment.
Calocane stabbed Barnaby Webber, 19; Grace O’Malley-Kumar, 19; and Ian Coates, 65; to death in Nottingham in June 2023.
He was sentenced to detention in a high-security hospital—‘very probably for the rest of your life’, the judge told him—after admitting manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.
Mr Seiger—who also advised the families of the Nottingham victims—said: ‘As with the Nottingham attacks case where the NHS was forced to disclose the full investigation report despite their violent protests; the same will happen in this case even if it takes my last ounce of strength.’
He said the health board needed to be transparent about why Mr Stone was killed: ‘Shame on them and their legal advisers for putting Lewis’s family through this; shame on them.’
He described the ordeal as a ‘disaster from start to finish’ for the family; saying Fleet ‘clearly and plainly did not receive adequate treatment as an inpatient’.
‘There must have been serious errors of clinical judgment and a failure to do a risk assessment adequately or at all and manage that risk,’ he said.
Of the demand to release Fleet's reports, Ms Daniel, of the Hywel Dda University Health Board, said in a statement: 'The Duty of Candour for patients came into force in Wales in April 2023.
'At the time of this incident and concern, we fulfilled our duties to be open.'
Asked if the health board would apologise to Mr Stone and Fleet's families, she said: 'In the event of serious incidents, we have robust processes in place for reviewing internally, identifying any issues, and where appropriate, preparing an improvement plan to prevent such an occurrence in the future.
'We regret such incidents and always seek to learn from them.'
A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: 'We understand this decision will be difficult for the Stone family, and our thoughts are with them.
'Any decision to approve access to the community is only made after a thorough risk assessment and with strict safeguards in place.'