Why was Shrewsbury man free to kill?

The family of a Shropshire woman murdered by a knifeman who had previously killed his own sister today demanded to know why he had been released to kill again.

Steven Churchill was jailed for life at Stafford Crown Court yesterday after he admitted the murder of Jane Edwards at her home in Hanwood, near Shrewsbury, last December.

Churchill, of Stephenson Drive, Shrewsbury, stabbed her 52 times in what grieving relatives called a 'brutal and callous' murder.

The 52-year-old, who claimed he murdered Miss Edwards because he beli- eved God told him she was a witch, showed no emotion as he was ordered to serve a minimum of 26 years.

In court it was revealed Churchill strangled, stabbed and attacked his sister Lynn Painter with a hammer at a flat in Kings Norton, Birmingham, in September 1985 because he believed she and his other siblings were conspiring against him.

Prosecutors in the resulting case accepted Churchill's guilty plea to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility and he was placed under a hospital treatment order for the killing. He was released into the community in 2002 after spells in Broadmoor Hospital and other secure units.

Yesterday Mr Roger Smith QC, prosecuting, said 52-year-old former soldier and Falklands War veteran Churchill became friends with Miss Edwards, 59, at Shelton Hospital in 2005 where both were volunteers.

He said Churchill planned the 'frenzied' attack for two weeks and went armed with a knife to a Christmas meal at Miss Edwards's Caradoc View flat on December 14.

Mr Smith said: "He told police he was stabbing indiscriminately and she was shouting." He said afterwards Churchill calmly poured himself a drink and had a cigarette before returning to Shrewsbury.

Following sentencing, in a statement on behalf of the family, Miss Edwards's brother, Clive Edwards, said: "Very serious questions have been posed to the mental health service and this will continue to be the case until we receive a complete understanding of the care this man received."