Father who threw baby son into river had begged to be sectioned three times

Zac Bennett-Eko begged to be sectioned just days before he threw his baby son into a river. Three days after his last trip to A&E, Zac Bennett-Eko took his 11-month-old son Zakari out for a walk in his pushchair in Radcliffe. Eyewitnesses saw him pick his son out of the pram and then swing the boy backwards and forwards before throwing him over a fence and into the river.Bennett-Eko went to the nearby Lock Keeper pub and sat at a table Immediately after the offence, his behaviour there was sufficiently unusual that people realised the incident must have something to do with him. He told a member of the public what he had done, while emergency services scrambled to the scene to save his baby’s life.He explained it to the police once they arrived and spoke to him. He was immediately arrested. He was later assessed at the police station by two psychiatrists and found well enough to be interviewed. They also found well enough to be held in HMP Forest Bank. He was later transferred to Ashworth Hospital, a high-security hospital for mentally ill offenders, where he remains.A serious case review: Zak Bennett-Eko the father who threw his baby son into a river had begged to be sectioned in the days before the tragedy unfolded. A serious case review has been found. Zak Bennett-Eko, 23, believed his son Zakari was "turning into the devil" when he dumped him off a bridge into the River Irwell in Radcliffe in Bury, Greater Manchester, on the afternoon of September 11, 2019.He was sentenced to a hospital order after being found guilty of the 11-month-old baby’s manslaughter by diminished responsibility. At the time of his sentencing, judge Mr Justice Fraser said the Bennett-Eko had "slipped through the net" of mental health services in the period leading up to the incident.A review published by Bury Integrated Safeguarding Partnership found Bennett-Eko had been known to the care system but had been ‘lost’ and his needs had been ‘neglected’ when he was moved along with the toddler’s mother, Emma Flood, from Manchester to Bury.Due to his worsening condition, Bennett-Eko went to the A&E department at North Manchester General Hospital on September 8 , just days before the tragedy. He told staff he had not been taking prescribed schizophrenia medication and asked to be sectioned. It’s known that he had attended the same hospital at least twice before in the previous month, but delays meant he was not given treatment in time.Three days after his last trip to A&E, Bennett-Eko took baby Zakari out for a walk in his pushchair in Radcliffe, while Ms Flood remained at their flat.He was later arrested at the pub and charged with murder, but this was then downgraded due to his paranoid schizophrenia and severe state of psychosis. The review found Bennett-Eko had been discharged from a learning disability service in Manchester due to a lack of attendance. It said: "The result was that (he) became 'lost' and his needs neglected by the care system in Manchester, including the key element of a responsible clinician to oversee his medication."Information taken from: https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/R-v-Zak-Bennett-Eko-Sentencing-Remarks.pdf https://metro.co.uk/2021/07/01/manchester-father-who-threw-baby-son-into-river-had-begged-to-be-sectioned-three-times-14860441/