The death of an 83-year-old dog walker who was killed by a man suffering from mental health issues is to be probed by a sheriff.
David Johnstone left Frank Kinnis dead and two other victims needing hospital treatment after assaults carried out 40 minutes apart in Elgin.
His concerned parents had previously contacted NHS 24 twice trying to have their son sectioned.
A fatal accident inquiry into the brutal incident has now been ordered.
Attacker was acquitted on medical grounds
The probe will “examine the mental health care and treatment provided by medical professionals” to Johnstone prior to the incident.
Johnstone, 38, was acquitted on the grounds a mental disorder left him unable to appreciate the nature or wrongfulness of his actions.
Judge Lord Uist ordered him to be held at the State Hospital in Carstairs, Lanarkshire, without limit of time for the attack of October 2019.
A preliminary hearing has been set for next month at Elgin Sheriff Court with the full inquiry scheduled for January.
In October 2020, a psychiatrist told the High Court in Edinburgh that Johnstone had psychotic symptoms for about three years before the attacks.
Urgent referral was made to psychiatrist
Dr Natasha Billcliff said that although his family and his GP recognised that Johnstone had an illness he did not.
She said that Johnstone, who formerly lived alone in Elgin, was “paranoid and edgy with other people” and had been a cannabis smoker from the age of 14.
A family doctor had also made an urgent referral to a psychiatrist for him but he did not attend the meeting and a letter of appointment went unopened.
A notice announcing the inquiry said: “The inquiry is a discretionary inquiry under section 4 of the Inquiries into Fatal Accidents and Sudden Deaths etc. (Scotland) Act 2016, as the said Frank Yule Kinnis died as a result of being assaulted by David Johnstone, who was not criminally responsible for his conduct due to mental disorder at the time of the incident.
“This inquiry is necessary to examine the mental health care and treatment provided by medical professionals to the said Mr Johnstone prior to the incident.”
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