Exmouth killer tells jury he blames mental health services

Exeter Crown Court Reporter Edward Davenport writes for the Journal.

A mental patient who stabbed a grandmother to death in a random attack has blamed failures in his care for the killing.

Cameron Davis said he had threatened to kill a stranger when he was refused a bed in a psychiatric unit out of frustration at not being offered the help he needed for his mental health.

He said he left the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital with the intention of hanging himself but also bought a kitchen knife as a back-up plan when he saw it on sale at Lidl.

Davis killed 74-year-old grandmother Lorna England by stabbing her through the heart as she walked home across Ludwell Valley Park in Exeter from a shopping trip shortly before 3.50 pm on February 18, 2023.

He had been taken to the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital at 6 am that day after calling police to say he was about to set light to his room at the Rohaven Guest House in Exmouth.

He was assessed by two mental health practitioners who decided not to admit him and discharged him at 12.43 pm after taking advice from a consultant psychiatrist.

Davis told them he would harm or kill someone if he was not admitted and the hospital tried to alert police on the 101 non-emergency line but were put on hold for two hours before being cut off.

He told Exeter Crown Court that he blamed the lack of care he received by the mental health services for what happened.

He said: “It was a mess-up. The whole of the mental health team, I do blame them for me not getting the help I needed. They did not ask questions, they just sat there and wrote notes down. The whole mental health team were wrong.”

He said he had no memory of the killing and had no intention of killing anyone. He said: “Killing a stranger was the last thing on my mind. I knew there was no help I could get and it was still mu intention to take my own life.”

Davis, aged 31, of Exeter Road, Exmouth, denies murder but the jury have been told he has admitted manslaughter by reason of diminished responsibility, a plea which has not been accepted by the prosecution.

Davis told a jury at Exeter Crown Court that he moved to Exmouth after being released from Winchester Prison in July 8, 2021 and was employed as a builder by his brother at a site in Bridgwater, Somerset, for a while.

He lost his job after crashing a digger and had an argument with his brother in which he drove a van at him but did not hit him. He had his own flat at Blackmore Court in Exmouth for a while but was forced to move out after setting light to it in November 2022.

He said he was homeless for a while and had been taking crack cocaine but that his mental health improved when he became a volunteer in the Open Door café in later 2022.

Davis said he was placed in Rohaven in late 2022 and things went well until he a fellow resident made a complaint of sexual assault, leading to him losing his work at the café and his mental health deteriorated.

He said started hearing voices and having alarming thoughts and had been notice to quit his accommodation after telling a support worker that he was worried that he may harm his housing officer.

He said he tried to get emergency help for his mental health on a number of occasions including one on January 28, 2023, when he went to the police, was seen by psychiatrists and referred to the local team in Exmouth.

Davis said on the morning of the killing he believed the police had a spy in his room and thought everyone was against him when he called 999 and was taken into the RD&E for assessment.

He said: “I warned them my mental health was getting out of control. I told them I was fed up with trying to get help from the services and not doing to and it was giving me a headache. I was trying to explain things and they were just not listening.

“I wanted to end my life. I did not want to hear voices. I did not want to speak to anyone. I felt that whatever was going to happen was going to happen. I remember calling my mum and telling her the hospital just chucked me out and didn’t help.”

He said at one point when he was on remand after the killing he believed he was God but later realised this was ‘very silly’