Father who stabbed daughter during psychotic episode loses legal fight against NHS trust
A paranoid schizophrenic who was shot by police as he stabbed his teenage daughter during a psychotic episode in Kent, has lost a High Court fight against the NHS trust providing his mental health care.
Marc Traylor repeatedly stabbed his daughter Kitanna Traylor, 23 in February 2015, before he was shot by armed officers. He was found not guilty of attempted murder by reason of insanity at a trial at Canterbury Crown Court in 2016.
Traylor, from Hersden in Kent, brought a claim against the Kent and Medway NHS and Social Partnership Trust, arguing it had been negligent in treating his mental illness, leading to the incident and his resulting injuries.
Traylor's daughter, Kitanna, also brought a claim that the Trust hadn't taken steps to protect her right to life.
Miss Traylor suffered significant physical and psychiatric injuries. Mr Traylor had a cardiac arrest and a brain injury due to a lack of oxygen, and now uses a wheelchair, and requires 24-hour care.
The trust opposed both father and daughters' claims, accepting that while a decision to discharge Mr Traylor from secondary care was "not handled correctly", all other allegations of negligence were denied.
The court heard that Mr Traylor was previously diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia with morbid jealousy, and he'd been convinced his wife was having an affair, and that someone was plotting to kill him.
He was given monthly antipsychotic medication injections in February 2013, and later asked to move onto daily tablets, which he hadn't been taking, before attacking his daughter.
Lawyers for the health trust argued that the incident was caused by Mr Traylor's decision to stop taking his medication and that he "voluntarily accepted the risk that he might act as he did" when he went against medical advice.
In a judgment on Thursday, Mr Justice Johnson ruled in favour of the trust in both claims, finding it was not liable.
He said, "Marc Traylor agreed to take the medication and agreed that if he changed his mind and decided to come off the medication, he would inform the mental health clinicians so that he could be closely monitored."
"He never took the tablets. He threw them away when walking the dogs. He lied to people, including (his wife) Nicole Traylor and those who came to see him after he was discharged to review his progress, and said that he was taking the medication, when he was not."
Lawyers for Mr Traylor argued he was not advised by his doctor to remain on the long-lasting monthly injections for his treatment. But Mr Justice Johnson said he didn't believe the evidence was reliable and that he'd "consistently lied to others" about taking his medication.
Mr Justice Johnson said: "The events show that he was determined to come off his medication. As soon as he had the opportunity to do that, he did. And he lied about it."
"The trust took reasonable steps to avoid the risk that Marc Traylor would suffer a relapse of his psychotic illness."
"Regular monitoring was carried out to ensure that Marc Traylor was not relapsing and that he was taking his medication.
"This did not pick up that Marc Traylor had stopped taking his medication, in part because he lied to Nicole Traylor and to the mental health care team staff."