Gavin Nash stabbed his 64-year-old mum Lynette multiple times during an episode of ‘acute psychosis’ – and her husband Stuart was forced to listen to the attack over the phone
A husband was forced to listen over the phone as his wife was brutally stabbed to death by their son.
Gavin Nash stabbed his 64-year-old mum Lynette multiple times with a kitchen knife at their home in Portishead, North Somerset, last June while in the grip of ‘acute psychosis’, a court heard. Nash, 40, admitted manslaughter by reason of diminished responsibility at Bristol Crown Court and was sentenced to an indefinite hospital order.
Prosecutor Richard Posner said Mrs Nash dialled 999 the day before her death because of concerns about her son, who was ‘out of control’. Two members of a community mental health team carried out an assessment on the day of the killing, and were concerned about the level of danger that he might pose to the public.
Nash fled the family home, but later returned. Mrs Nash was calling her husband, Stuart, on the phone when the brutal attack happened. Describing the moment of the attack unfolded, Mr Posner said: “Stuart Nash had to listen to Gavin killing his mother.” Nash later rang police and confessed: “I’ve murdered my mother.” In a written note to a judge, he told the court: “I loved my mum.”
Stuart Nash criticised police for their response to the incident, and said there were “missed opportunities” to save Lynette and Gavin from the “horrific outcome”. In a victim impact statement, he said: “It’s very difficult not to blame the police officers or the crisis team for the lack of response, and whilst I try not to blame anyone in particular, I can’t help but going over and over, again and again, the missed opportunities that we all missed to save Lynette and Gavin from the horrific outcome.”
Judge Martin Picton described Mrs Nash’s death as “utterly tragic” and imposed orders under sections 37 and 41 of the Mental Health Act on Gavin Nash. Nash will be indefinitely detained in a psychiatric unit and only released when it is deemed safe to do so.