By apologising to killer Matthew Daley’s family for failing to heed their warnings over their son’s mental state the Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust does so because he was a client.

It feels it has let him and his parents down.

Such expressions of sorrow can feel out of place given that the Trust seems to give equal weight to that and its remorse for the family of the real victims of the A24 stabbing tragedy, Don Lock and his family.

But what really should concern us is whether this client status blinded health workers to what was really going on in Daley’s head, something his mother seems to have intuited well ahead of medical experts.

That will have to be answered in the full investigation into this terrible incident.

So far Trust chief executive Colm Donaghy has handled this crisis professionally.

Unlike many chiefs he has not sought to hide the Trusts shortcomings behind nonsense excuses such as patient confidentiality or legal issues.

The public’s right to know what happened here is overwhelming and he is sensible enough to know it.

That is why an independent investigation into ten homicides in which his Trust had some involvement is a right step.

If a pattern emerges in these cases Mr Donaghy’s work will really begin.

Talk of lessons being learned will simply not suffice. The public will rightly expect a proper price to be paid.