Apology after Liverpool man murders pensioner
Health chiefs have apologised after a rapist from Liverpool was convicted of murdering a pensioner while on the run from a mental health unit in London.
Terrence O'Keefe, 39, killed 73-year-old David Kemp in Great Yarmouth in March last year.
Police did not initially think Mr Kemp, who lived alone in a flat, had been murdered.
But about a month after his death, one of O'Keefe's associates contacted police and pointed the finger.
O'Keefe, who denied murder, had escaped from a unit in London where he was serving a life sentence imposed in 1996 for rape and robbery.
He gave his guard the slip while having hospital treatment, then travelled to Great Yarmouth, where he lived for several weeks.
Mr Kemp, described as a "vulnerable" pensioner whose only company was a cat, was strangled with a belt.
O'Keefe was convicted at Liverpool Crown Court in September 1991 of robbery and having sex with an under-age girl and given a 57-month custodial sentence. In June 1996 at the Old Bailey he was given a life term - with a recommendation he should serve at least 10 years - for rape, false imprisonment and robbery.
A spokesman for South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust said O'Keefe's escape "should not have happened" and apologised unreservedly.
At Norwich Crown Court Mr Justice Saunders adjourned sentencing to a date to be fixed. It is likely to be at Nottingham Crown Court in September.
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Friday 25 May 2012
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