Stone: Report Into Treatment

A report into the care and treatment of Michael Stone, who murdered Lin Russell and her six-year-old daughter Megan, is due to be published. Stone was given three life sentences in 2001 for killing Dr Russell, 45, and her daughter, and the attempted murder of Megan’s sister Josie, then nine, in Chillenden, Kent, in 1996. An independent inquiry report into Stone’s treatment by mental health, probation and social workers before the attack was completed in 2000 and an addendum added two years later but it was not published at the time because he was launching an appeal against his conviction.

It was then due to be published last year but was put on hold while Stone tried to bar the press and public from seeing the full document.

In July a High Court judge said it was in the public interest for all of the 384 page report to be published.

Stone was refused funding by the Legal Services Commission for an appeal, paving the way for the publication.

The inquiry was commissioned by West Kent Health Authority – now the South East Coast Strategic Health Authority – Kent Social Services and Kent Probation Service and chaired by Robert Francis QC.