The serious signs missed in days before man killed his own cousin in brutal axe attack

Mental health staff did not effectively act upon a man's grave concerns reported to them about his severely unwell cousin – hours before he was brutally murdered by him.

The NHS has published an independent investigation into the care and treatment of Ashley Rowen, also known as Ashley Glennon, by Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust (GMMH). The mentally ill Rowen chased his cousin and main carer, Ryan Lowry, down the street and struck him 13 times with an axe in Partington on February 27, 2020.

In a catalogue of errors by the troubled mental health trust, the dangerous ‘sex offender' Rowen had managed to persuade mental health staff that he was not a ‘high-risk patient’. But staff did not corroborate Rowen’s story, failed to act on his history of well-documented violent behaviour, and did not allocate him a professional care manager before he killed Ryan in the street, the independent investigation found.

Join our WhatsApp Top Stories and Breaking News group by clicking this link

Mental health staff caring for Rowen did not ‘adequately reflect and/or assess either his historic or most recent risk incidents’ - which included attacking his elderly grandfather, a domestic violence conviction, and threatening his own mother while in possession of a knife, the report says.

Rowen, a tree surgeon, pleaded guilty to manslaughter on account of diminished responsibility and was sentenced to an indefinite hospital order in January 2021. Rowen had been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia but had stopped taking his medication before the fatal attack. His victim, Ryan, had even gone with his cousin to the GP as Rowen’s mental condition deteriorated in the lead up to the violence, and reported his concerns