HEALTH officials are investigating how a psychiatric patient released from hospital came to be in a London flat in which a man had been murdered and dismembered. Detectives suspect that the body was cut up in preparation for cannibalism.

Home Office officials opposed the 34-year-old man’s discharge from Rampton Hospital two years ago, The Times has learnt. Managers at East London and the City Mental Health Trust are now investigating how the patient came to be discharged from one of its hospitals.

They are concerned that the case will reveal flaws in the policy of care in the community for patients with serious mental illness, especially those with a history of violence.

They were trying last night to discover under what conditions he was living on the ward at Newham General Hospital, what supervision he was under and how he came to be discharged. The trust has already been criticised for failing to appreciate the dangers its patients could pose.

Healthcare inspectors said last year: “Some managers and clinicians have become inured to the severity of incidents such as suicides or homicides and the trust has continually failed to investigate and report on these events by required deadlines.”

In September 2002 the trust refused to admit Stephen Soans-Wade, 36, to hospital because doctors said his mental illness could not be treated.

Soans-Wade had been desperate to get into hospital and, when his appeals failed, went to Mile End station and pushed Christophe Duclos under a Tube train.

After he was jailed for life, the trust said: “People with personality disorders may make heavy demands on local services which are often ill-equipped to deal with these.”

Police discovered the body of Brian Cherry, 45, at his council flat in Walthamstow, East London, on Tuesday. Both arms and a leg had been severed and he had suffered severe injuries to the head. Bloodstained instruments were strewn around.

Police are investigating whether the contents of a frying pan on the stove were human flesh.

The 34-year-old mental patient was admitted to Rampton Hospital in February 1994. He was discharged two years ago after applying to the mental health review tribunal.

A Home Office objection was overruled and he was released under a procedure that placed him under the care of a psychiatric social worker and a psychiatrist.

The patient was passed to the John Howard Centre, a semi-secure unit in Homerton Hospital, before moving to Hackney to live in the community. His condition deteriorated and he went into a psychiatric unit in East London a few weeks ago.

Peter Bryan, 34, whose address was given as Topaz Ward at Newham General Hospital in East London, appeared before Waltham Forest magistrates yesterday charged with the murder of Brian Cherry. He was remanded in custody until next Thursday.

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