Costessey killer causes NHS trust pressure over transparency

Bartlomiej Kuczynski, 45, was found dead in his Costessey home alongside Jasmin, 12, and Natasha, eight, and their aunt Kanticha Sukpengpanao, 36, last Friday.

Detectives are treating the deaths of the girls and the aunt - who all suffered stab wounds - as murder and believe they were killed by Kuczynski before he took his own life.Neighbours have said that the structural engineer had suffered with mental ill health for several months leading up to the killings and had been seeking help.

But the Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) - which provides the region's mental health services - has so far refused to disclose whether its staff had any dealings with him.

The trust has a long history of poor performance, having been placed in special measures by the care regulator four times since it was formed in 2012.

The most recent data shows that 5,175 people in Norfolk and Waveney have been waiting longer than 18 weeks for its services, while earlier this year an extraordinary report into mortality data found there had been more than 8,000 "unexpected" deaths of its patients in the past three years alone.

MPs are now calling on the trust to clarify whether Kuczynski was a patient and to provide some basic details for the public.

North Norfolk MP Duncan Baker said: "I think it is important the trust mirrors other services who have been as open and transparent as possible about this tragedy.

"It is important the general public can have faith that if they need mental health support they are able to get it and clearly this man was very unwell.

"I will be meeting with the trust next month and will be personally raising this issue with them."

Norwich South MP Clive Lewis has made similar calls for openness.

"NSFT is an unaccountable and secretive organisation that clearly has genuine issues with frank and honest discourse with the public," he said.

"Given its appalling track record on unaccountable deaths and systemic service failure, expecting basic transparency from it is, alas, a highly unlikely prospect."

The trust has been approached on several occasions for comments on the Costessey tragedy, but each time it has said it can not comment due to the ongoing police investigations.

This is despite both the police and the Independent Office for Police Conduct issuing public statements to clarify key details of the investigation, including Kuczynski's dealings with officers before the murders.

Norfolk Constabulary has confirmed it has reported itself to the police watchdog over its handling of two incidents in the lead-up to the tragedy - when he went missing on December 14 and a 999 call he made an hour before the bodies were found - and has disclosed details of these investigations.

The Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital has also clarified details about an incident on December 14 when Kuczynski was taken there by police for a mental health assessment.

He was given a "comprehensive review" on arrival and judged to have mental capacity, but left A&E before he could be seen for further assessment and formally discharged.

NSFT's chief executive Caroline Donovan was asked directly about her organisation's links - if any - to Kuczynski at a public meeting yesterday, but declined to provide any information.

She said: "Our absolute heartfelt sympathy and sorrow go out to the family involved in these tragic circumstances and the wider community.

"It is an extremely sensitive issue and we want to work closely with our partners, particularly the police but also with the family in supporting any messages that go out in the future.

"At the moment the police have launched their own internal investigations and while that is under way we are not sharing any further information.

"We absolutely want to be open and transparent but we need to balance that with the needs of the family."

Analysis: Openness and honesty is key to keeping trust

Now we know more about the tragic circumstances leading to the deaths of four family members in Costessey, the time has come for transparency from the region's mental health services.

It has become very clear that this horrific incident came at the hands of a man in the midst of a mental health crisis.

Yet the Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) has given no significant public comment about what involvement - if any - Bartlomiej Kuczynski’s had with its services in the lead to this tragedy.

The notoriously secretive organisation has thus far said its hands are tied by the police investigation.

And yet the constabulary itself has kept the public well-informed about its investigations - and the fact it has referred itself to the police watchdog over its handling of the case.

Likewise, the IOPC has made public statements about its involvement and what precisely it is probing.

If both these organisations can make meaningful public comments - why can NSFT not?

It may well be that Kucynzski's efforts to receive help were through channels other than NSFT and that the trust had no opportunity to intervene.

It may well also be that the trust was doing everything it could for him in impossible circumstances.

Whatever the case is though, the public does deserve to know.

In cases this horrific, the main reason to shield information from the public is that a criminal case is looming and that it is vitally important the integrity of the court system is protected.

However, given that all involved parties are now deceased, there will never be a criminal case to prejudice.

It is firmly in the interest of the public for NSFT to be transparent about its role - or potentially lack of - in this horrible situation.

Given the trust's struggles over the years, public faith in the organisation is understandably low.

It has constantly tried to reassure the public its culture is changing, but the radio silence about this tragedy suggests very little has changed.