A Southport Tragedy With Three Victims

 

I don't often look at the "100 Families" website, but for some reason, I did today. The first item that I looked at shocked me for several reasons: yet another murder by a mental health patient back in 2016, the suicide of the victim's sister shortly afterwards and the death in 2020 of their mother, Maureen Lound, seen above. This tragic trio were all fellow-natives of my home town, Southport. In the past, when I have written about this subject, I have written about just one victim; this case has three. 

The first victim, seen above, was William, the son of Maureen Lound. A 30-year old student at Salford University, William was a gay man who, unfortunately for himself, attracted the homophobic attentions of a paranoid schizophrenic: Lee Arnold. In the university halls of residence, Arnold strangled William and stabbed him six times. According to the BBC report: 

"The 30-year-old had asked Arnold: "Why are you doing this? Why me?". Arnold wrote on his (William's) bedroom wall after the killing: "I always win."

Next day, Arnold went into a police station and handed himself in, saying that he was frightened he would murder someone else. Predictably, when he appeared in court, he pleaded that his schizophrenia had driven him to kill. Judge John Potter rejected this, describing the attack as a "transphobic and homophobic murder". Arnold was sentenced to 23 years and four months.

Arnold's profile is similar to that of so many of the other perpetrators who have featured on this blog over the years. 37 years of age, he was, as noted above, a paranoid schizophrenic. "100 Families", in their obituary for Maureen, note that Arnold had a long history of drug addiction, mental health problems and violence.

" Although he had told mental health professionals he was hearing voices telling him to kill people, he was released by a mental health tribunal back into the community when he killed Will. It was a completely avoidable death."

Quite so, and there have been so many others. Subsequent inquiries castigated the mental health authorities, but this was small comfort to Maureen, who lost her son in February, and then her 28-year old daughter Virginia, in June of the same year.

Virginia, aka "Gini", was a university graduate who had worked as a lecturer in Southport College before starting her own corner shop business in 2015, becoming known to local children as "the sweety lady". Unable to bear the loss of her brother, she committed suicide in her shop and was found dead on June 19, 2016. Her mother, Maureen, said:

 “Last Christmas I had two wonderful children who I loved very dearly and was very proud of. This Christmas I will be alone".

It is testament to Maureen's courage that she soldiered on with her life, despite having to cope with what can only be described as immeasurable grief. When her son's killer was sentenced, she bravely stated:

"I am glad that Lee Arnold pleaded guilty to the murder of my son and will now get the psychiatric treatment he needs. However, nothing will take away from the fact I have lost my kind-hearted, wonderful son...I do not blame Lee Arnold for what he did, I blame the system which allowed it to happen."

Judge Potter said on the day of passing sentence:

"It takes a remarkable and especially courageous person who says that she bears no malice to the person who killed her son."

Indeed she was, but she also passed a judgment that I, and so many others, can heartily endorse:

"How many other Lee Arnolds are loose on the streets of our towns and cities, with the potential to kill or injure innocent people?
Perhaps it is time our government woke up to the fact that investment in mental health services is totally inadequate".

I, along with many others, have been saying the same thing for a number of years.

To conclude, I would like to say that I hope Mo and her children rest in peace. I shall eschew the temptation to say that they are now all together again. I'd rather say that all three should still be here, and if Lee Arnold had been retained by the mental health system in 2015 or earlier, this triple tragedy could have been prevented.