Teenager killed at care home after 'catalogue of failures'

A "catalogue of failures" resulted in the murder of a vulnerable young woman who was strangled in a care home by a fellow resident with a history of sexual violence, a coroner has concluded.

- Steven Morris

Senior managers at the care home in Bristol where Melissa Mathieson, 18, died were described as "reckless" by the coroner for not effectively supervising her killer, Jason Conroy.

Maria Voisin, the senior coroner for Avon, also found there were failings by Conroy's home local authority, the States of Guernsey, for allowing him to be placed at Alexandra House without the security measures needed to keep residents and staff safe.

Speaking outside the court, Mathieson's father, James Mathieson, said his daughter should still be alive. He said: "She was a wonderful, warm person with an infectious personality that lightened any room she entered."

He said the home had let down both his daughter and Conroy. "He should never have been given the opportunity to murder Melissa. It was well known that he was at extremely high risk of murdering someone, particularly petite females, and he should never have been allowed to wander a care home unsupervised."