A psychiatrist who requested a hospital bed for a patient told a court he is “surprised” he managed to be discharged days before stabbing a man to death in Broughty Ferry.
David Reid stabbed Mark Johnston at least 120 times, believing he was the Devil.
Before the killing, he had told family members and medical workers about delusions that “demons” were trying to harm him and asked for treatment.
Reid, 47, from Dundee, who suffers from paranoid schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, was admitted to Royal Cornhill Hospital in Aberdeen but doctors ruled he was not ill enough to be detained for urgent treatment and he left.
He later stabbed his best friend Mr Johnston, 47, with a kitchen knife.
Travelled from Dundee to Aberdeen
At the first day of a Fatal Accident Inquiry in Dundee, former NHS Tayside psychiatrist Dr Malcolm Kinnear, 53, stressed he was not criticising colleagues in NHS Grampian for allowing Reid to leave.
He said the decision would have been made based on Reid’s condition.
Dr Kinnear, a consultant at Dundee’s Wedderburn House, had requested a “scarce” bed at Royal Cornhill in Aberdeen due to their being no available beds closer to Reid’s home in Broughty Ferry.
Community mental health nurse Andrew Warren and mental health nurse Ron Menzies accompanied Reid on his 70-mile journey up the A90 from Dundee.
The pair, who escorted Reid to hospital in Aberdeen by taxi, told the inquiry they could see his condition improving discernibly the further they travelled from the block of flats in which he lived with what he described as “a demon”.
Reid had suggested to medical professionals as long as he was near the “demon” at his block of flats, there was a risk that one would attack the other.
Did not meet criteria for detention
Dr Kinnear reconfirmed his position that had Reid not been willing to attend hospital, he would have detained and assessed him himself.
Dr Kinnear, now of Stratheden Hospital, also said he would have contacted police over “targeted threats to his neighbour and by association, the demon.”
In a statement given to police, Royal Cornhill psychiatrist Dr Andrew Robinson said: “There was no indication from NHS Tayside as to how long David [Reid] would be in our care.
“David was kept under general observations by nursing staff and I would have been made aware of any issues.”
Dr Robinson confirmed Reid had been admitted as an informal patient as he had arrived voluntarily and he was not “distressed” when he arrived.
Reid had been being assessed on a daily basis while in Aberdeen, and Dr Robinson explained three of the five criteria for detention had not been met.
Dr Robinson, 68, told the court Reid had said just wanted to go home and that he was willing to continue taking medication at home.
The doctor said he was “disappointed” Reid left as he was keen to resolve other issues.
He said he and his team were “extremely surprised” to hear of Reid’s subsequent violent actions.
Reid acquitted of murder
After leaving hospital, Reid phoned his sister less than 48 hours after being discharged to confess stabbing Mr Johnston to death in his flat in Broughty Ferry, “shredding” his jugular vein with a kitchen knife in October 2017.
Reid was acquitted of murder after prosecutors accepted he was not criminally responsible for his actions because of a mental disorder.
At the High Court in Glasgow last February he was sent to the State Hospital at Carstairs without limit of time by judge Lady Rae.
The FAI, presided over by Sheriff Jillian Martin-Brown, will continue on Thursday.
