France shocked by double murder and beheading at psychiatric hospital

[emad]

Jon Henley in Paris and agencies
Monday December 20, 2004
The Guardian

A savage double murder in the psychiatric wing of a French hospital, in which a nurse's decapitated head was left on top of a television in the patients' day room, stunned France and left hospital staff terrified of returning to work.

Staff at the 460-bed Pyrenees Hospital Centre near the south-western town of Pau discovered the bodies of two nurses - both in their 40s, and mothers of young children - at 6.45am on Saturday, police said.

One had been stabbed and slashed several times in the body, neck and throat, and was lying in a corridor in a pool of blood. The beheaded body of the second was lying at the foot of a fire door.

"It is horror, terror, fear, disgust - fear of returning to work," Cathy Sanders, a regional official from Worker's Front union, told RTL radio.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/france/story/0,11882,1377311,00.html

[Stuckinthebush]

1. It sounds like they had a serious security problem

A psychiatric wing of any hospital needs to have a number of security controls in place to ensure the safety of the patients and the staff. While a very small portion of psychiatric patients are dangerous to others, there is still that small portion.

This is a sad story. I hope it results in added security measures for the hospital.

[Igel]

2. But who expects people breaking in to murder?

"A police spokesman said it was not yet known how the killer or killers had entered the building, which lies in the middle of a wooded 42-hectare park. However, investigators are "fairly sure" that a shattered window pane in the men's toilets was used as the escape route. Traces of blood left on the broken glass were being tested for DNA."

[w4rma]

4. Former psych patient out for revenge? (nt)

[RebelOne]

3. I see a horror movie in the making.

Seems as if Jason is now in France.

[eleonora]

5. I was just thinking the same thing

Hollywood is going to jump on this like hungry wolves