HEALTH bosses have ordered a probe into the care received by a mental patient who stabbed his partner to death.

Father-of-two Craig Sexton, 30, from South Shields, South Tyneside, admitted the manslaughter of Lynda Lovatt on June 18, last year.

He killed the 29-year-old as their seven-year-old son and daughter, four, slept in their beds.

The inquiry was commissioned by Northumberland, Tyne and Wear Strategic Health Authority after it emerged that Sexton had a history of mental illness and had been assessed by medical staff on the day of the stabbing.

Under NHS rules, an investigation has to be held if a patient receiving treatment for mental illness commits murder or manslaughter.

Sexton was originally charged with murder, but, last month, prosecutors at Newcastle Crown Court accepted his plea to the lesser charge of manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.

John Evans, prosecuting, told the court medical evidence showed that at the time of the killing the defendant was suffering from an abnormality of the mind induced by disease.

Sexton was remanded in custody while further medical reports were prepared.

The independent inquiry will be held after Sexton is sentenced today.

Members of the panel will include a consultant forensic psychiatrist and a senior psychiatric nurse. It will be chaired by a solicitor.

The findings of the independent inquiry will be made public in due course.