A JURY has been told to consider whether a student who escaped from a mental health unit and was brutally killed was properly cared for.

Eastbourne student Janet Müller, 21, was burned in the boot of a car by Christopher Jeffrey-Shaw after leaving Mill View hospital in Hove.

She had been sectioned under the Mental Health Act.

She escaped by walking out of the front door of the hospital earlier on the same day on March 12, 2015.

The jury sitting at her inquest at Crawley Coroner’s Court has heard six days of evidence about the circumstances in which she was detained and how she came to escape from the hospital.

West Sussex senior coroner Penelope Schofield directed the jury yesterday that they would have to find she was unlawfully killed.

She added that they should give a narrative conclusion setting out the circumstances that led Janet to her death.

She told them to consider: “Was Janet suffering from an undiagnosed psychiatric illness? Was she at risk of absconding?

“Were staff aware? Were adequate risk assessments carried out in relation to Janet’s risk of going absent without leave?

“Was information relevant to Janet’s risk properly recorded? Were the risks of absconding adequately managed in light of the information available to staff?

“Did Sussex Partnership Mental Health Trust act adequately to the risk of patients absconding over the garden wall?

“Did staffing levels on the night on March 12 impact on the risk of absconding? Did staff act in accordance with the trust’s AWOL policy.”

Ms Schofield reminded the jury they had heard evidence from Sussex Partnership’s consultant nurse for patient safety Mark Melling, who said that all new patients were usually put on eyesight observations. However, he told the inquest he couldn’t say whether this was ever the case with Janet.

Ms Schofield said Mr Melling had said “there had been six occasions when patients absconded over the wall”.

She said: “He was also concerned about the wall in respect of people coming over it into the ward.”

The inquest was told that after Janet’s body was found Sussex Police referred themselves to the Independent Police Complaints Commissions because she had already gone missing earlier the same day. However the 21-year-old had only been graded a “medium risk” missing person.

The six men and three women in the jury were told they could take as long as they needed to reach their conclusions. Yesterday evening after four hours of deliberations they had not reached any agreement. The inquest continues.