I hope the social worker who is produced the knife to, is brought to book over this. Here we go again somebody else who shouldnt be out on the street snuffs out some innocent persons life. Until we make parole boards, judges etc accountable for there actions there will be a lot more victims

Amazing all the warning sign were there. Yet due too the lack of funding or cohesive thinking by social workers, another dreg commits murder. We seem to have too many dregs who cannot cope with life and destroy others. This is where politics, should get involved and demand secure accommodations for mental characters.

How can the authorities look at this mans family in the face? A man who is known to the social services and has "spoken of murderous impulses" before, shows a social worker a knife and what happens? They make him an appointment to see a doctor. It would be laughable if not so tragic for the poor victim.

No beds so send him to prison? Oooooops, hardly any space in prison so we'll make him eligible for parole in 5 years. Absolutely disgusting.

"...him he must serve five years before he can be considered for parole...". He should never be released.

The judge was not passing sentence under the Mental Health Act because there were no beds available. This is the real reason for "care in the community"; cost cutting. Bankers before beds.

i remember well how ms Reissman raised issues concerning mental health provision in manchester.
There are two underlying issues that remain unresolved and will mean a very similar incident happening again in the future.
firstly Assertive Outreach, who have responsibility for dealing with the hard to engage people in the community are not up to the job, previously they were a small scale group operating under the name of Engage and have taken on too much by winning the tender for the assertive outreach service.
Secondly there is a chronic shortage of bed spaces available in Manchester meaning that people in crisis are left in the community not through a clinical decision but one based on the availability of beds..
i imagine that the decision not to section mr Cusack went something like this
" hes missing appointments, he has shown us a knife and is back on drugs"..
but is he showing signs of mental distress ?
"no"
in that case we have not got enough to put him in hospital, you know the situation with beds!

Social services department should be closed down no appeal no smart lawyer claiming money for the sacked incompetent people sack the lot

Once again the professionals got it wrong yet again.And yet again a innocent person paid with their life.

I would not say it is the social worker who should be brought to book over this tragic incident (by the way the social worker was sacked). I would say it is the Mental Health and Social Care Trust who should be brought to book for creating the situation where there is a permanent bed shortage thus preventing people needing inpatient treatment, having to suffer at home in the community. It is not uncommon for patients on weekend leave to return to the ward and find there is someone else in their bed. The pressure placed on all mental health professionals working in the community by their employers has resulted in scenarios like this before. Far from making the social worker the scapegoat, try looking at the pressures they worked under and from whom that pressure came.

Good post minnie. How many others waiting for beds.

This is showing that care in the community does not work in an awful lot of cases.

Yet again the public have been let down my those who are 'paid well to do a job of work'. Be it monitor people with a health problem, provide hospital and prison services or ADMINISTER APPROPRIATE SENTENCES FOR CRIMES COMMITTED.

What a shambles!

I'm sorry, I know mental illness is not nice but until doctors can get to the part of the brain that causes people to do these kind of hideous things and be able to correct it, he should never be released.

The individual social worker is not to blame here. He/she is part of a system that is heavily flawed. As many others have pointed out, there is a severe bed crisis in Manchester which means many individuals who need admission unfortunately remain at home, some not only a danger to others but also to themselves.

It is true that if it was uncertain as to whether Cusack had a mental health problem he could not have been sectioned in the first place. mental health professional's hands are tied, and there are rigorous criteria to meet in order to get someone into hospital.

If he did not have a diagnosis, and was carrying a knife then this was ultimately a polic matter, just as it would have been for any non-'mental' patient, which by the way, i find a very offensive way to refer to someone with mental health issues.

this is an absolute outrage from start to finish.

firstly take the example of an institution like Offerton House, a massive care facility for the likes of this criminal, sold off to make way for houses. and where is the money for that, who knows? this is dead-set typical of these institutions all over Manchester and of the capitalist government thievery of recent years. The penny pinching b******* will do anything, YES ABSOLUTELY ANYTHING, to save a quid, rebranding it as 'care in the community' and if that costs lives, surely thats a small price to pay for the savings made. disgusting.

i honestly wonder how these pen-pushers and bonus-seekers sleep at night when by engaging in paid indifference and endemic corporate apathy innocent people lose their lives.

Karen Reissmann, had previously raised concerns about cuts in the NHS and the Health Advocacy and Resource Project which was undertaking the care of this man, and was sacked for her trouble under the guise of "gross misconduct", where listening to her concerns might have been somewhat more appropriate.

an even greater injustice would be that Debbie Nixon, of Manchester PCT, Jackie Daniel, chief executive of MMHSCT and Elaine Dixon, chief executive of HARP do not lose their jobs after admitting 'extreme concern' and 'serious failures'.

some people here have made some great comments and i wholeheartedly share your incredulity at the vast scale of indifference, the absolute void of care and the inadequacy of a legal system which states that a man who kills another man should be granted the opportunity of release in 5 years, "because there were no beds available".

This is a man who had been sectioned, who admitted to carrying a knife and had been caught twice with one by police, he confessed to using crack & heroin and even told his care worker he had stopped taking his medication and yet after all this he was still allowed to remain at large in the community. is that care? if after all that, alarm bells were not ringing at deafening tone, surely i do not know what would have roused the suspicions of any authorities.

Eighteen missed appointments later and the hard-working, devoted grandad, husband and father, Sid Waller was dead.

I have no sympathy for Paul Cusack and I hope he has a more miserable time on the inside for many more than 5 years.

I dont know whether you knew Sid or not, but i did.

i'd really like to have posted a balanced, even tempered reaction to this story and i have tried to be as eloquent as i can in the circumstances but Sid was my dads best mate for 30+ years, a man i knew all my life, and to have his life ended in this way is indescribably painful for his family and anybody who knew him.

xx rest in peace sid xx

'Life' doesnt mean life in prison, it means life on license. A pathetic sentence for this offence but even worse as the man has mental health problems with muderous tendencies and could easily have been sectioned. The only excuse is that there is no room? So, once every hospital bed and prison cell is full, will we just stop sectioning or jailing people who need to be took out of society? Why is nobody DEMANDING answers to the over crowding problems as it is high priority? This should be front page news, everyday. The whole of civilisation from cradle to grave revolves around punishment for 'being naughty'. That is how we learn right from wrong. We are on the brink of collapse, not doing anything to solve it and children are growing up thinking that crimes go unpunished. This will already take years and years to correct and everyday it goes by unchallenged we are adding tens of more years onto the problem. Turn a blind eye now and we will be living in a totally criminal state in the future. Those who dont see it or believe it are just plain ignorant and stupid.

Tragic case undoubtedly and sadly not that rare. However all those so ready to castigate the social workers etc, if you want that job and could do it so much better (as appears to be the gist of almost all posts whenever the system breaks down) there are innumerable opportunities for you out there, just look at the current TV advertising. If all you do is sit on the sidelines saying how the social workers are inept and inefficient, offering criticism and doing nothing about it other than post on here, you are not providing any form of solution, you are not even trying to. It is very easy to criticise, much harder to have the courage to try and act.

I know there is people who are mentally ill who wouldn't harm a fly but then you get these sinister people? who should be locked up if they have ideas of harming people.

It is a real shame when a good man is going about his business and this has to happen.

It is probably costs that are keeping them from locking them up.

I wonder if the mystery man who visited the flat and spoke to Sid the week before was Cusack, as Cusack knew that Sid would be working at that flat on the Moday of Sid's death.