A mentally ill man who stabbed his ex-girlfriend to death just hours after he was discharged from a hospital did not pose a risk to others, a report ruled today.

Craig Sexton murdered Lynda Lovatt, 29 - the mother of his two young children - when he stabbed her 40 times with two knives.

An independent report commissioned by the Northumberland, Tyne and Wear Strategic Health Authority after Sextons conviction found that his behaviour "presented no risk to the safety of Lynda Lovatt, their children or any person.

The attack on Lynda and her death was a course of events that was totally unforeseeable.

It also ruled that there were no grounds to detain Sexton under the Mental Health Act before the killing, despite the concerns of his family.

Lynda's body was found on the living room floor of the house she had shared with Sexton in Defoe Avenue, South Shields, South Tyneside.

In February this year Sexton was detained indefinitely under the Mental Health Act after prosecutors accepted his plea to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.

Newcastle Crown Court heard that his parents were so worried about his state of mind they had taken him to see psychiatrists for urgent treatment on June 18, 2004.

But he was assessed as a low risk, and the jobless 32-year-old was simply told to return the next day.

Hours later he travelled to the home of his ex-partner, who was trying to start a new life with their two young children, and stabbed her to death.

Afterwards Sexton went upstairs to see his children James and Amy, then aged seven and four, who were asleep. He then telephoned his father to say he had killed Lynda.