Failures contributed to deaths of pensioners killed by mentally ill man in Exeter, inquest finds
Anthony Payne and twin brothers Dick and Roger Carter were killed in 2019
Last updated 27th Oct 2026
An inquest jury has found that a series of failures contributed to the deaths of three pensioners killed by a mentally ill man in Exeter just hours after his release from custody.
Alexander Lewis-Ranwell, who is now 35, attacked Anthony Payne, 80, with a hammer, and bludgeoned to death identical twins Dick and Roger Carter, 84, with a shovel.
The inquest jury criticised police and healthcare professionals employed by Devon County Council, Devon Partnership Trust and contractor G4S.
It concluded that these "shortcomings probably made a more than minimal contribution to the three deaths."
Attacks hours apart
The attacks took place on February 10 2019, three hours apart, at two houses a mile and a half from each other in Exeter, Devon.
Shortly before the killings, Lewis-Ranwell had been released from police custody after being arrested for attacking elderly farmer John Ellis with a saw. It was his second arrest in 24 hours, and came just seven hours after he had been held for attempted burglary at another farm.
The inquests heard that he had three spells in custody between February 8 and 11.
After his arrest for attacking Mr Ellis on February 9, Lewis-Ranwell was seen by Dr Mihail Pichiu, a force medical examiner employed by G4S.
Dr Pichiu did not recommend an assessment under the Mental Health Act, but asked for him to be seen by a mental health nurse the next morning. That never happened.
Lewis-Ranwell then travelled from Barnstaple to Exeter, where he killed Mr Payne and the Carter brothers.
After his second release, his mother, Jill Lewis-Ranwell, spoke with an officer who told her that her son was "crazy".
The next morning he was arrested for the third time, for affray and possessing an offensive weapon, following an incident at a hotel in Exeter.
A Mental Health Act assessment was then completed, which concluded that he was acutely psychotic.
He told psychiatrists that before the killings he had been having delusions about paedophiles and kidnappers.
Detectives later linked Lewis-Ranwell to the deaths of the three pensioners and charged him with murder.
A jury found him not guilty of murder by reason of insanity, and he was detained indefinitely in a psychiatric unit.
Originally from Croyde, north Devon, Lewis-Ranwell was listed as an "interested person" during the inquests but did not take part and was not legally represented.
The inquests heard that he had a history of cannabis use and "drug-induced psychosis or paranoid schizophrenia".
Families call for change
Amanda Taylor, niece of Dick and Roger Carter, said: "Nearly eight years after the brutal killings of our uncles, Dick and Roger Carter, we finally feel that the inquests have exposed the systemic failures and missed opportunities that cost them their lives.
"While nothing can undo our loss, we hope that the findings will lead to meaningful, lasting change across all organisations involved.
"We believe the evidence heard during the inquests demonstrates the need for a national review of guidance and training on mental health in police custody, so that meaningful lessons are learned, and similar failures are not repeated.
"Private companies such as G4S who have been outsourced to provide public services need to be scrutinised.
"Dick and Roger's deaths must lead to lessons being learned nationally, so that these failures are not repeated and other families are spared the devastating loss we have endured."
Mr Payne's family also called for changes and said they hoped no one else would suffer the same loss.
"We can only hope that the agencies listen to this damning conclusion and take stock of the changes that need to be made to ensure this doesn't happen again to another family," they said.
"Breathtaking" failures
Bharine Kalsi, the lawyer representing the Payne and Carter families, said: "The scale of the failures in this case are breathtaking.
"The core of this is of course the wholesale failure of the G4S doctor, who maintains his errors to this day, despite them being pointed out repeatedly, and G4S' poor recruitment practice.
"But there is also a much wider issue about the capacity of police systems to pick up when another part of the system has failed, and about mental health awareness of officers.
"Time and again in this case we saw the police missing signs that were obvious to members of the public.
"That looks like wholesale desensitisation by those who should be alert.
"It requires urgent action including at national level."
A G4S spokeswoman said: “We offer our condolences to the families affected by these tragic events.”