Psychiatric patient gets life for murder

Edgington had been sectioned after she killed her mother in 2005

A psychiatric patient who murdered a woman six years after killing her own mother has been jailed for life 
 
 A 32 year Old,Nicola Edgington, of Greenwich, who has mental health condition, must serve at least 37 years for nearly decapitating Sally Hodkin in Bexleyheath.

And it has emerged police officers failed to carry out checks which would have revealed she had killed before.

The police watchdog said officers had failed to carry out a check on the day of the killing in 2011.

Edgington, who was sentenced at the Old Bailey, had also been found guilty of trying to stab Kerry Clark, 22, whom she attacked shortly before Mrs Hodkin.

She received another minimum sentence of 20 years for the attempted murder, which will run concurrently.
 
'Manipulative and dangerous'
John Cooper, QC, mitigating, said she was a woman in crisis and had not been given the help she asked for.

But Judge Brian Barker told her: "Your actions on leaving the hospital were a consistent and calculated course of criminal conduct.
"You are manipulative and extremely dangerous.

"These were terrible acts and you must take responsibility for what you did.
"The fact you failed to kill Kerry Clark was only due to good fortune and swift reaction. What you did could not have been more selfish

During the trial, the jury heard 999 calls made in the hours before the attacks, during which Edgington said: "I need for the police to come because I've had a nervous breakdown before and I killed someone." 

In the hours before the murder, Edgington called emergency services four times asking for help, saying she was hearing voices again and that she was going to kill somebody.

She was taken to two different hospitals, although she was able to walk out.
The Independent Police Complaints Commission said: