A mother told police, ‘I knew I was going to kill someone today’, after beating a pensioner to death in a Co-op supermarket, an inquest heard.
Eunice Rees, 87, waited in the car as her childhood sweetheart John, 87, went into the Penygraig Co-op for a spot of shopping the Rhondda, South Wales.
The retired engineer never returned after Zara Radcliffe, 34, battered him with wine bottles and a fire extinguisher as he tried to stop her knife attack on a nurse.
Radcliffe, who has paranoid schizophrenia, had recently been released from mental hospital with ‘no negotiated crisis plan’.
She beat the church warden so hard with a wine bottle it broke, before picking up another and hitting him in the face and head a further 21 times as he lay on the aisle floor, an inquest in his death heard.
Mr Rees, a church warden described by the coroner as ‘a private, quiet, and humble man’, died from severe blunt force facial injuries, a post-mortem examination found.
When Radcliffe was arrested inside the shop, ‘she was calm if a little vacant’, Sergeant James Pearce said.
‘She spoke softly and had a manner of indifference about her which resonates to this day. She said words to the effect of, “I knew I was going to kill someone today”‘.
The 34-year-old mum-of-two later admitted manslaughter by way of diminished responsibility and was sentenced to an indefinite hospital order.
She also pleaded guilty to three charges of attempted murder of Lisa Way, 53, Mr Price, 58, and Gaynor Saurin.
Radcliffe had been released from a mental hospital with ‘no negotiated crisis plan’ a few months before the May 2020 attack.
There were ‘warning signs’ of her ‘rapid deterioration’ in the lead up to Mr Rees’ death, an independent review commissioned by Cwm Taf Morgannwg Safeguarding Board found.
But the dangers were ‘not recognised or poorly processed’ before she was discharged.
This has become a focus of the inquest into the death of Mr Rees.
Radcliffe had spent two months in a mental hospital after hearing ‘voices’ in her head in late 2019, and she believed doctors were trying to kill her.
No longer taking her medication, Radcliffe’s family were worried about the care she was receiving from mental health services leading up to the attack.
‘She came out of hospital and she was ok, but there wasn’t any aftercare’, according to hersister Kylie, who described their relationship as ‘very close’.
‘I had a feeling something would happen and it would take something serious for them to realise how ill she was.’
On the day of the Co-op attack, Radcliffe had told her sister ‘delete my number’ in a series of strange text messages, the inquest heard.
Kylie replied: ‘Stop this paranoid stuff, you’re making yourself ill. You have done this a few times and you know this is the start of you going ill.
‘Please stop this and take your tablets love.’
In another message, she said: ‘Take your tablets Zara. You should know now these thoughts are not real love they are all in your head.
‘Soon as you take your tablets you’re alright.’
With no reply from Zara, Kylie ‘started to worry’, ringing round her parents trying to track down her sister.
Then her son told Kylie ‘there had been a stabbing in Penygraig’.
Paul Mears, chief executive of the Cwm Taf Morgannwg University Health Board, called it ‘a tragic case that has impacted upon the lives of many people’.
He said: ‘We apologise to Miss Radcliffe and her family for any instances in which her care fell short of the high standards we set ourselves.
‘We requested this external review to ensure all opportunities for learning and improvement could be identified.’
Mr Rees was posthumously awarded the Queens medal for gallantry for saving nurse Gaynor Saurin from Radcliffe’s attack.
Prosecutor Michael Jones KC told a hearing that Mr Rees’s efforts to stop Radcliffe was ‘a selfless and brave act which cost him his life’.
Coroner Graeme Hughes described him as ‘a private, quiet, and humble man, satisfied to concentrate his love on Eunice, his grandchildren and All Saints Church where he was a warden and had been ringing the bells on a Thursday night’.
Mr Rees’ family called him ‘the very definition of a good man, extremely respected and liked in the community’.
The inquest, set to last four days, continues.
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