Mentally ill man killed neighbour weeks after father tried to have him sectioned

A much-loved children’s author was shot and stamped to death by his mentally ill neighbour just weeks after his father failed in his attempts to have him sectioned, an inquest has heard.

Alex Sartain, 42, who had been discharged from a mental health programme in April last year, attacked parish councillor James Nash outside his thatched cottage on August 5, believing he was a Russian spy who was to blame for the spread of Covid-19.

Just weeks before the incident, Mr Sartain’s father had pleaded with the NHS to examine his son.

But an inquest at Winchester Coroner’s Court heard that the local GP surgery had not been informed that he had previously been sectioned and a receptionist “inappropriately” informed Mr Sartain that doctors would only see his son if he consented.

Following the fatal attack in the idyllic village of Upper Enham in Hampshire, Mr Sartain, 34, fled the scene on his motorbike and was killed when he lost control and crashed around three miles away.

Mr Nash had been working in the garden of the £600,000 cottage he shared with his scientist wife, Dr Sarah Nash, when Mr Sartain, pictured below, approached him and opened fire with a homemade sawn-off shotgun.

A post-mortem revealed Mr Nash managed to avoid a full blast to the face by moving the sawn-off's muzzle but he was struck by a cluster of pellets.

He subsequently suffered “unsurvivable” brain injuries caused by Mr Sartain repeatedly stamping on his face with such force it collapsed his skull in multiple places.

The inquest heard how Mr Sartain had suffered mental health issues dating back to 2008, having been diagnosed with anxiety and depression.

His brother, Scott Sartain, told the inquest: "Over the past few years Alex's mental health really started to deteriorate. He often sat in his room talking to himself about spying and government agencies talking to him.

"[After he was sectioned] he came back a very different person and started talking about the CIA and space teams watching him. He was talking in delusional terms."

He said as far as he knew, his brother had never spoken to Mr Nash, but that he heard him “talking about him working for Putin and not trusting him”.

Mr Sartain’s father, John, said: "He was always on about him and that it was something about Putin and the spread of Covid."

Dr Nash told the inquest she had been on a video call inside the cottage when she heard a loud bang and raised voices outside.

When she went to investigate saw Mr Sartain repeatedly stamping on her husband’s head with “clear intent”.

Dr Nash said: "As soon as I opened the front door I could see a man in full black leathers stamping on the face of my husband who was flat out on his back in the garden.

"I later saw something in his hands that was black, clearly metallic and was L-shaped. It was about eight inches both ways – at the time I thought it was a tyre wrench.

"When I saw what was happening I, perhaps naively, ran straight out to him with the intention of trying to distract him. He took his helmet off, I had never seen him before.”

Caroline Wood, their neighbour, said after hearing a gunshot and raised voices she saw Dr Nash running towards her home screaming “help, help, there's a crazy man out there and James has been knocked unconscious”.

The inquest was told Mr Sartain had been discharged from a mental health programme in April 2020 and placed under the care of his GP surgery – however, doctors at the surgery were not made aware.

Coroner Jason Pegg said following Mr Sartain's release from hospital into community care, his condition deteriorated, leading his father to contact the NHS out-of-hours service in June over his concerns.

He said that a record of this contact was passed to Mr Sartain's GP surgery, Adelaide Medical Surgery in Andover, but this was only filed and not brought to the attention of his GP.

Mr Pegg said that procedures had been changed at the practice to prevent this reoccurring, following a change in management.

Recording a verdict of unlawful killing, Mr Pegg said: "Alex Sartain in his mind believed and had concerns that James Nash worked for President Putin and Nasa and James Nash was in some way in control of him."

Describing her husband, Mrs Nash said: "He was a kind and generous man who wanted to help people and the community at large.

"He was inspired by everything around him, he loved to draw, he loved to create and he wanted to share that with people and that's how he created his characters that went into his children's books."