Portsmouth university graduate to be sentenced over crash stabbing death

Matthew Daley, 35, knifed 79-year-old Donald Lock 39 times on the A24 at Findon, near Worthing, West Sussex, on July 16 last year.

University of Portsmouth architecture graduate Daley stabbed Mr Lock after his Toyota crashed into the back of Daley’s Ford Fusion at about 16mph, causing minor damage to both cars.

Before the killing, Daley’s family had ‘pleaded’ with clinicians to section him as his mental health declined, his trial heard.

Days before the trial started, chiefs at Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust apologised to Daley’s relatives for not doing more.

At Lewes Crown Court in May, Daley, formerly of St Elmo Road, Worthing, was cleared of murder but convicted of manslaughter.

Mr Lock’s son Andrew criticised the trust afterwards, saying his father would still be alive if mental health teams had done their jobs properly.

Trust chief executive Colm Donaghy said ‘we got things wrong’ and signalled changes would follow, but he believed staff were not deliberately negligent.

Following the verdict, an independent review of 10 killings involving patients known to the trust was announced, including that of paranoid schizophrenic Daley.

The shunt happened after Mr Lock, who was returning from a cycling meeting, had to brake suddenly after Daley inexplicably made an emergency stop.

A ‘calm’ Mr Lock got out of his car to ask Daley why he had braked suddenly. Daley then launched a knife attack on him while remaining calm ‘like Jesus Christ’, he said.

Mr Lock, who had recently been given the all-clear from prostate cancer and was to become a great-grandfather for a sixth time, died at the scene.

The two-week trial heard Daley had suffered mental illness for 10 years, and his family had implored experts to section him.

His mother Lynda Daley told jurors he was never given a proper diagnosis, that they had not been listened to by health professionals and how they often lived in a state of anxiety.

Daley, who is being held at a medium-secure unit in East Sussex, will be sentenced at Lewes Crown Court by Mr Justice Singh from 10.30am.