The warning signs were there and now a 'lovely' man has been murdered by a total stranger

Retired engineer John Rees was tragically killed during a routine visit to his local shop - a daily ritual that saw him leave his wife Eunice in the car while he did some shopping. On that fateful day, 88-year-old Mr Rees was brutally murdered by Zara Radcliffe, a complete stranger.

Radcliffe, who was described by her family as a "soft, kind woman", took the life of the helpless Mr Rees in the middle of a busy store after she had been incorrectly discharged from hospital. A four-day inquest concluded this week, raising several concerns about how Radcliffe, who began suffering from paranoid schizophrenia at a young age, was monitored and cared for in the weeks and months leading up to the incident.

She had spent just over three months at the Royal Glamorgan Hospital before being deemed "low risk" to the public by clinical staff and subsequently discharged in February 2020. Radcliffe's sister Kylie expressed her concern when her sister was released from hospital, stating she had a "feeling something would happen".

This came days after staff at the Royal Glamorgan determined that Radcliffe's psychotic symptoms had lessened when she adhered to her medication regimen. Following weeks and months of medical records suggest that Radcliffe, a resident of Rhondda Cynon Taf, could not have been consistently taking her prescribed antipsychotic tablets - which she was to take five times daily.

Her GP, Doctor Gwyndaf Williams, stated he distributed only one batch of tablets during this period; it would have been depleted long before Radcliffe killed Mr Rees at the bustling Co-op store located in Penygraig, a village adjacent to Tonypandy, reports Wales Online.

Radcliffe's family suggests she was provided with very limited aftercare