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Wednesday, 30 October, 2002, 10:23 GMT
Conference marks Zito anniversary
Jayne Zito
Jayne Zito says she still feels a great sense of loss
A major conference examining the state of mental health care is being held on the 10th anniversary of the stabbing of Jonathan Zito by a paranoid schizophrenic.

Mr Zito was stabbed in the eye in an unprovoked attack while he waited for a Tube at Finsbury Park station in north London

His killer, Christopher Clunis, had been released from hospital under the care in the community programme.

The conference, which has been organised by the Zito Trust, will look at the mental health service over the past 10 years and at proposals for the future.

Jonathan Zito
Jonathan Zito was murdered
Mr Zito's widow, Jayne, set up the trust to try to raise awareness about the problems surrounding community care for people with severe mental illness.

She told BBC London she will never forget the pain of losing her husband.

"I still look at him as a young man who is looking forward to life, very vulnerable and unfortunately he died because of this tragic incident involving Christopher Clunis.

"There's still this great sense of loss about it, even 10 years on."

Detained indefinitely

Clunis had been known to various health authorities, but a lack of co-ordinated care meant he went untreated.

He was sentenced to be detained indefinitely at Rampton high security hospital after admitting manslaughter due to diminished responsibility.

At Wednesday's conference, Mrs Zito is expected to back the government's new proposals for mental health care which extends powers for compulsory treatment.

The Home Secretary David Blunkett and Home Office minister Hilary Benn are also speaking at the two-day forum at the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre in central London.

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 ON THIS STORY
Dr Dele Olajide, a consultant psychiatrist
"There's a theory that those living in London are more predisposed to mental illness if they are from ethnic minorities"

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