Officers 'failed to carry out checks' on killer patient

Police officers failed to carry out checks on a psychiatric patient who murdered a woman which would have revealed that she had killed before, a report has found.

Nicola Edgington, 32, of Greenwich murdered Sally Hodkin, 58, six years after she killed her mother.

The police watchdog, the IPCC, said officers had failed to carry out a check on the day of the murder in 2011, after Nicola Edgington made several phone calls to police, asking to be sectioned.

In a statement, IPCC commissioner Sarah Green said she hoped lessons would be learned to improve the handling of high-risk cases in the future.