FREE TO KILL
Mum slams ‘catastrophic’ choice to free paranoid schizophrenic from jail before he killed her son in Birmingham rampage
Smirking knifeman attacked victims at random as he roamed streets
A MUM has slammed the "catastrophic" decision to release a paranoid schizophrenic from jail before he killed her son in a knife rampage.
Zephaniah McLeod, 28, told horrified onlookers "watch this" before slashing at revellers enjoying a night out in Birmingham.
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He knifed Jacob Billington, 23, in the neck as he walked back to a hotel with pals in September 2020.
The smirking killer then attacked others by "calmly" picking his victims at random - leaving one partially paralysed and another fighting for life.
Shockingly, the paranoid schizophrenic had been allowed to roam free from prison unsupervised after being released in April 2020.
Jacob's mum today spoke out after a coroner ruled her son was unlawfully killed, saying there were multiple failings by agencies.
Read more on the tragedy
She slammed the decision to release "violent" and "dangerous" McLeod just months before he unleashed his rampage.
Joanne Billington said: "My son Jacob was a fantastic young man who lost his life in horrific circumstances at the hands of an extremely mentally ill individua.
"This is every parent's nightmare - and it became our reality."
The mum also drew comparisons between her son's death and the Nottingham attack that killed three last summer, saying no lessons had been learned.
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McLeod was sentenced to life with a minimum term of 21 years - initially to be served at a high-security hospital.
He had previously admitted manslaughter, four counts of attempted murder and three separate offences of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.
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McLeod, who expressed "dark and sinister thoughts about killing" to medics, was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia in 2013 but "never" had proper treatment.
McLeod was only seen face-to-face by a mental health team on September 3.
He then "refused" to attend a psychiatric assessment - just three days before he launched into the knife frenzy.
McLeod also refused to take his medication as he was "afraid of side-affects of the prescription drugs".
Chilling CCTV showed McLeod ambushing strangers as he stalked the city centre with a knife.
After knifing Sheffield Hallam University worker Jacob, he also stabbed his friend - leaving him seriously injured.
Jacob's mum Joanne Billington shares her outrage
"Throughout the sentencing and serious case review we discovered that the offender was well-known to all the agencies we would expect to keep the public safe. He never complied with anything the services offered and refused to take his medication.
"He was released from prison with no supervision at the end of his sentence and there was no effective release planning for this dangerous individual and the risk to the public was never seriously considered.
"Services failed to such an extent that it was not known where he was, or even what city he was in.
"We also found out that McLeod had been subject to enhanced public protection arrangements but was removed from this six months before release simply because he was not complying with the process.
"This was a catastrophic decision that meant many effective measures for monitoring McLeod were taken away.
"This dangerous man with a severe and enduring mental illness whose risk to the public was well-documented simply walked out of prison and disappeared."
McLeod even momentarily paused the rampage mid-way through to hop in a taxi and pick up another knife from home before continuing the bloodshed.
Jacob was declared dead after being stabbed so forcefully in the back with the knife it came out through his chest.
In a chillingly similar knife spree, Valdo Calocane, who also had paranoid schizophrenia, stabbed Barnaby Webber and Grace O'Malley-Kumar, both 19, and Ian Coates, 65, to death.
At the time, he was wanted by police after failing to attend court for allegedly attacking a police officer.
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Concluding the inquest on Friday, senior coroner for Birmingham and Solihull Louise Hunt said: "(McLeod) had a long history of violent offending and was known to be a high risk of harm to the public and to have sporadic compliance with anti-psychotic medication, but there was no lawfully available control that might have been placed upon him at the end of his sentence to protect the public from the recognised high risk he presented."
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