AN investigation into the care of a teenage mental patient, who battered a student to death in Hartlepool, has concluded that it would have been impossible to predict the murder.

But the independent inquiry panel criticised shortcomings in the way care services were co-ordinated, partly due to a "confusion about roles and responsibilities", following a merger between two NHS mental health trusts.

Panel members agreed with psychiatrists that Kevin Littlewood, from Hartlepool, was not mentally ill but showing signs of a condition known as adjustment disorder.

This was despite a statement from his mother that Littlewood had brandished knives at members of his family on two occasions.

Littlewood's father never accepted the diagnosis and criticised the level of care his son received.

The inquiry was ordered after Littlewood was found guilty of murdering John Paul Jeffries and sentenced to life imprisonment in January last year.

Mr Jeffries, an 18-year-old student, was killed with hammer blows in what Judge Peter Fox said was a merciless and unprovoked attack.

At the time of the attack Littlewood was aged 17.

The body of Mr Jeffries was found wedged between rocks at Hartlepool Marina.

Neil Robinson, the former NHS trust chief executive and Mental Health Act Commissioner, who chaired the inquiry, said the main concern was the possibility of self-harm, rather than Littlewood being a threat to others.

"In the panel's view it would have been impossible to have predicted the homicide," said Mr Robinson.

The panel found that the overall standard of care, treatment and support provided by the Tees and North East Yorkshire NHS Trust and its predecessors was satisfactory.

Mr Robinson said he was impressed by the "co-operation and honesty" of all who gave evidence to the inquiry and said the "distress and shock" at what had happened was readily apparent.

"Our view at the end of this process is that the people of Hartlepool have a very good service available to them from all of the agencies involved in this inquiry, and that these are services that they can have confidence in," said Mr Robinson.

Nigel Maguire, director of mental health services for the Tees and North East Yorkshire trust, said they had developed a joint action plan with Hartlepool Social Services and had implemented the majority of recommendations made by the report.