Priest-killer’s mother ready to back inquiry

Mar 17 2008 by Jackie Bow, South Wales Echo

THE mother of a man who stabbed Valleys vicar Father Paul Bennett to death has welcomed news of an inquiry.

Caroline Evans said her mentally-ill son Geraint feels “devastated” and she also felt responsible for Father Bennett’s death.

She said she would give evidence at any inquiry and is seeking answers.

A year ago, parish priest and father-of-two Father Bennett was stabbed outside his vicarage in Trecynon, Aberdare, by Evans, a paranoid schizophrenic whose flat overlooked the St Fagan’s church grounds.

Evans pleaded guilty to manslaughter on the basis of diminished responsibility.

At Cardiff Crown Court last October he was sent to a secure psychiatric hospital indefinitely.

Last week the Echo revealed that an investigation had been ordered by the Welsh Assembly Government into why Evans was not identified as a threat. Evans’ mother said she and her son wished they could turn back the clock.

“He is devastated by it,” said Mrs Evans.

“He asks ‘why didn’t I die after taking all those cans’ (of aerosols), said Mrs Evans.

“He was hoping rather than taking someone else’s life, he would have died.

“Hindsight is a wonderful thing. He himself then would have been man enough to go off and get the help he needed.

“He knew he was ill more than anyone else or myself.

“He just kept on holding it in and it got worse.”

Mrs Evans welcomed the inquiry by the Healthcare Inspectorate Wales into why Evans was not known to mental health services.

She will give evidence and said there were questions she wanted answered, including why her son was not offered help when he slit his throat outside the vicarage before the killing.

Mrs Evans, who still loves her son and does not believe he is evil, first realised he was troubled in 2005.

He told her he had been hearing voices and believed he was God and when the “voices came and took over him he was horrendous”.

She invited church members to her home to speak to him and later she said he seemed to settle down.

“I thought Geraint had got better,” she said.

Mrs Evans warned other parents whose children might have similar problems to “fight and get the help that I never had”.

jackie.bow@mediawales.co.uk