Inquest to examine fatal attack on church warden

An inquest date has been set to review the killing of a church warden by an escaped psychiatric patient in 2023.

In March 2023, David Parish escaped from the unit in Taunton, Somerset, and later broke into the home of 86-year-old Beryl Purdy in Broomfield using a golf umbrella to beat her to death.

He was sentenced to six years in prison during a hearing at Bristol Crown Court last year, having previously admitted manslaughter by reason of diminished responsibility.

Speaking at the pre-inquest review in Wells, Samantha Marsh, the coroner for Somerset, said the inquest will look at how Parish came to be detained in the unit in Taunton and why he was not prevented from killing Purdy.

Marsh said the jury-led inquest will discuss the events leading up to Purdy's death, including the mental health conditions that led Parish being placed into a secure unit, his escape, and his relationship, if any, with Purdy.

A full two-week-long inquest has been provisionally set to begin 8 March 2027.

Witnesses will likely include Parish's psychiatric nurse and the medical professionals which admitted him to the Rydon ward of Wellsprings Hospital, as well as the police officers and call handler who responded to the missing person notification.

In court last year, the jury was told Parish had been detained under the mental health act the Saturday before he killed Mrs Purdy, after wielding a samurai sword at his parents' home, but he was released on the Sunday.

Later that afternoon, he was detained again in the secure psychiatric unit in Taunton.

On Monday 27 March 2023, a door was left unlocked and he let himself out. He went to a nearby barber where he had his hair cut short and beard shaved off.

Later that day, he tried to pull a man from a car as he drove away from the car park in Fyne Court, a National Trust property in Somerset, but was unsuccessful.

A short time later, Parish gained access to Mrs Purdy's home in Broomfield, on the Quantock Hills, and killed her.

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