A CHARITY is to be prosecuted over the death of an employee who was stabbed to death on a visit to the home of a paranoid schizophrenic.

Support assistant Ashleigh Ewing was killed by Ronald Dixon when she called at his house in Newcastle to deliver a letter on behalf of a colleague, in May, 2006.

Twenty-two-year-old Miss Ewing, of Hebburn, South Tyneside, was found with 39 stab wounds in the kitchen at Dixon's home, in Eighth Avenue, Heaton, after he walked into a police station and told officers what he had done.

Dixon, then 35, subsequently denied murder, but admitted manslaughter by reason of diminished responsibility.

His plea was accepted by the prosecution and he was ordered to be detained indefinitely in a secure psychiatric institution, at Newcastle Crown Court, in October 2007.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) today confirmed it is prosecuting the charity Mental Health Matters, based in Sunderland, for an alleged breach of health and safety regulations relating to the killing.

An HSE statement said: "The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is prosecuting Mental Health Matters for an alleged breach of health and safety law following its investigation into the death of a care worker in Newcastle upon Tyne, on 19 May 2006.

"An employee of Mental Health Matters, Ashleigh Ewing, was killed by a service user, Ronald Dixon, in his home.

"He is presently detained at Rampton, having pleaded guilty to her manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility."

Mental Health Matters faces a charge alleging it breached the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974.

The first hearing in the case is listed at Newcastle Magistrates' Court, on Tuesday April 28.

Mental Health Matters said as proceedings were pending it would be inappropriate to comment.

Miss Ewing was six months into her first full-time job after graduating from Northumbria University when the tragedy took place.

She was working as a support assistant for Mental Health Matters, which provides community services for clients with mental health difficulties, and which was managing the property in Heaton where Dixon was living at the time of Miss Ewing's killing.