THE family of a young man who was murdered by a mentally unwell acquaintance have said they believe his death could have been prevented and called for a public inquiry.

Joe Lewis was 24 when he was murdered on Christmas Day 2014 by 31-year-old Oliver Parsons at the flat of a mutual friend in Warwick Mount, Brighton.

Parsons had a string of knife offences including one just three months earlier when he had threatened to harm hospital patients - an incident coincidentally witnessed by Mr Lewis's sister.

A report published yesterday laid bare mental health professionals' mistakes before Mr Lewis' murder and eight other killings committed by patients.

Speaking for the first time about his son's death, Mr Lewis's father, Jason Lewis, told The Argus he thought more should have been done about Mr Parsons following the incident at the Royal Sussex County Hospital.

He said: "Three months before he killed my child he was waving a knife around.

"Three months is not enough to assess somebody, give them care and be confident that they can go back into society.

"All the information was there for them to understand this guy is a threat.

"When he did this he rang the police and said, 'if you don't come here and arrest me, I am going to cut them', so clearly he knew he was going to do something bad and he wanted to be stopped.

"I think it was very predictable that he would have gone on to commit crime."

The review published yesterday into the Sussex Partnership NHS Trust found that professionals repeatedly underestimated the risk posed by patients and often failed to properly take into account criminal convictions.

It repeated the assessment of independent experts that the killings of Jan Jensen, 52, by Kayden Smith, and Sue Goswell, 63, by her husband Roger Goswell could have been prevented or predicted.

The independent report into Mr Lewis's death has yet to be completed. Exactly what care or punishment Mr Parsons was given following the knife incident is not yet clear.

Asked what might have been different had more been done, Mr Lewis said: "I would still have my son.

"My son would still be alive here and Oliver Parsons would not be a murderer.

"He was a mental patient and the duty of care was not there for him."

The family said they wanted a public inquiry into all the cases looked at by the review.

Parsons has paranoid schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder and other personality disorders, the court heard, but pleaded guilty to murder.

Judge Shani Barnes stressed he had voluntarily taken drugs and alcohol on the night of the killing and his actions were "totally and utterly senseless".

Yesterday trust chief executive Colm Donaghy apologised to people angered by the service and promised improvements were underway.

‘THEIR DUTY OF CARE WAS TO MAKE SURE HE DIDN’T HARM HIMSELF OR OTHERS’

NAOMI Lewis had gone to hospital with her partner when she first came across the man who would go on to murder her brother.

They were in the car park of the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton when police approached the car asking if she had seen a man with a knife.

“One part of the hospital was on lockdown,” recalled the 22-year-old mother.

“At the time I didn’t think too much of it.”

Nearly a year later, she stood at Lewes Crown Court listening to the previous convictions of the mentally unwell man who admitted murdering her brother Joe Lewis and suddenly connected the dots.

Since then, Oliver Parsons’ actions at the hospital three months before he stabbed Joe to death have seemed to the family a terrifying warning – on top of his previous 55 offences.

They can’t believe it wasn’t taken more seriously.

“My son would still be here if they had taken enough consideration about what this guy was up to,” Joe’s father Jason Lewis told The Argus yesterday.

“Their main duty of care was to make sure he did not harm himself or others.

“Even though Parsons murdered my son, he was clearly a mental health patient.”

Parsons suffered from paranoid schizophrenia wwamong other illnesses but admitted murder rather than manslaughter by diminished responsibility.

Joe was stabbed to death on Christmas Day 2014 while spending time at a friend’s house.

He had planned to go on to see his mother and sister in the city and then return to his father’s in Rustington.

His father said: “To get a phone call at 5.30am on Christmas Day saying your son has been murdered then to have to go round to your father’s house and tell him he is not going to be there for Christmas dinner because he is not alive… it was one of the most difficult things in my life.

“I lost my brother to a drink-driver so perhaps I have a coping strategy in place.”

Recalling his son, who attended Yapton Church of England school and then Westergate, he added: “I saw Joe every single day of his life.

“He loved going to festivals and he had friends everywhere.

“He liked to meet people and discuss all kinds of things.

“He was someone who had an enquiring mind like me and he could turn his hands to anything that he wanted to do. We built our home and he helped me build our neighbour’s home.”

The family’s anger over their son’s killing was worsened following the court case in late 2015 after police released an edited version of Parsons’ comments to police which they felt suggested Joe had brought it upon himself.

Then came yesterday’s review into killings committed by other patients connected to the Sussex Partnership NHS Trust, also in charge of Parsons’ care, which found similar mistakes repeated across cases from 2007.

They included not taking proper account of criminal records and not always sectioning people when they could have.

“Of course that makes it worse,” Mr Lewis said.

“It’s not an isolated mistake. Everyone was aware of his previous behaviour.”

Both Mr Lewis and Naomi stress many of their family members have received excellent mental health care, including Joe himself, who was temporarily a patient at the Hellingly mental health centre.

But they are determined professionals are held to account for mistakes made.

Mr Lewis’s family does not want the investigations into what went wrong to end with the review published yesterday, They would like a full public inquiry.

Mr Lewis said: “The death wwof my son is not going to be wasted.

“It’s a catastrophic amount of people that are affected by these deaths and responsibility needs to be taken for them.”