Opportunities were missed in the care of a young man with a severe mental disorder who went on to kill a stranger, a lawyer has said.
Callin Wilson, 20, pleaded guilty to stabbing Hazem Ahmed Ghreir through the heart. The victim had tried to stop Wilson from stealing a bike in 2017.
He was sentenced to nine years in jail in March, and the judge questioned how he could have slipped through the net.
Wilson had severe behavioural issues from an early age, his lawyer said.
Murder victim ‘acting as good citizen’
Brian Archer told the BBC a review of people with similar mental health problems should take place.
“At the end of the day Callin is responsible for what he did, nobody else, but there were opportunities missed,” he said.
Wilson’s victim was a 30-year-old Syrian refugee who had come to Belfast for a better life.
His brother Rami Ghreir said he hoped no other family would suffer in the same way and that “there should be somebody to look after these people”.
‘Three-to-one supervision’
Mr Archer said Wilson, who had a fascination with knives, killed family pets and set fire to a bin at his mother’s house when he was five or six years old.
When the family moved to Northern Ireland from Scotland in 2013, Wilson attended Loughshore educational resource centre for children with behavioural disorders.
His behaviour presented such concern he had to be monitored, at one stage, by three-to-one supervision.
He could not be left alone with pupils or single staff members – despite this he managed to put a wire flex around a classroom assistant’s neck and intimidated another with a knife during a home economics class.
While he was assessed as being autistic in 2010, he was also referred to child and adolescent mental health services but “didn’t meet the criteria there”, his solicitor said.
When he was 16, a full psychiatric report was commissioned by the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust, which Mr Archer said “highlighted his history and the work that would have to be done in future so he wouldn’t escalate to further criminality”.
Mr Archer said there should have been a multi-agency approach taken to Wilson’s needs while still a minor.
“If that work had been done, there could have been an opportunity to stop this happening,” he said.
‘Sad thing’
Mr Archer added that while there was plenty of concern from various agencies and thousands of pages of case notes, there seemed to be no clear plan about what was to happen when Wilson left school.
“Once he turned 18, there was very little support,” he said.
“He had moved out of the family home, he was in hostel accommodation, he wasn’t being supervised at all and this was highlighted by his GP as late as February 2017 – which is months before the murder took place.”
A Belfast Health and Social Care Trust said it could not “comment to the media on an individual person’s care or treatment” however it would “review this case for any potential learning”.
A spokesperson for the Education Authority said it was “inappropriate to comment on individual cases”.
Rami Ghreir, who runs his own restaurant and lives in Carrickfergus, said his brother was a “gentle man, he was a hard worker, he was friendly”.
He said it was particularly hard for the family to bear considering the perilous journey undertaken by the brothers to reach the UK.
“It’s very, very sad,” he said.
“The sad thing is we came here for safety and for a new life and for a place we believe is safe.”
Mr Archer added that Wilson told him he regretted what had happened.
Brian Archer’s full interview can be heard on BBC Radio Ulster’s Talkback programme at 12:00 on Wednesday 1 May.
