The father of a schoolgirl stabbed in the neck wants 'something good' to come from the tragedy.

Emily Jones was stabbed by paranoid schizophrenic Eltiona Skana in a park on March 22, 2020.

On Monday, after a two-week inquest earlier in the month, senior coroner Timothy Brennand suggested the incident was neither predictable nor preventable with anything other than hindsight.

But he explained there were issues in the care of Skana and expressed concerns across areas such as recruitment, staff shortages, staff training and workloads at the trust responsible for Skana.

Mark Jones wants lessons to be learnt from the tragedy and is working with Julian Hendy – whose father was stabbed by a man with mental health issues around 16 years ago – to achieve this.

Outside Bolton Coroner's Court he said: "We want something good to come from this. We're going to try to make a change. 

"Julian Hendy, who runs [charity] Hundred Families, it's been a crusade of his to try to make a change and these things are still happening. We're going to try our best so the death isn't in vain."

The Bolton News:

He added: "It's nothing that's come to light that I didn't know. I knew the system was broken. 

"Julian Hendy talks about it and I've met with other families in the Greater Manchester area who are affected by homicides."

Sefton Kwasnik, the solicitor for Mr Jones, said: "I don't think it's limited to homicides. The number of suicides where the victims are let down by mental health services is astonishing. 

"All suicides should be investigated more thoroughly than they are because of the potential effect of a lack of mental health support. It's a wider debate than the one that's occurred here."

Recording a conclusion of unlawful killing, Mr Brennand said he would write to GMMH, NHS England, the Health Secretary and the minister responsible for mental health about his concerns. Mr Kwasnik said this was 'of some small comfort' to the family.

Mr Brennand said he would write to Rampton Hospital, the psychiatric hospital where Skana has been held since she received a life sentence with a minimum term of 10 years and eight months on December 8, 2020. She was convicted of manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility, but was cleared of murder.

In a statement, a spokesperson for Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust, the trust responsible for Skana, said: “We would like to reiterate our deepest condolences over the devastating loss of Emily Jones.

"We have accepted the coroner’s findings from the inquest."

This article was written by Jack Tooth. To contact him, email jack.tooth@newsquest.co.uk or follow @JTRTooth on Twitter.