A schizophrenic killer tricked health staff into thinking he was not a risk to the public before he murdered a man and ate his brain, a report has said.

Peter Bryan, now 39, killed Brian Cherry (43) and ate parts of his body after being allowed to live in the community as an outpatient despite having previous convictions for murder.

Bryan, who was found at Mr Cherry's flat semi-naked and covered in blood, told police officers: “I ate his brains with butter. It was really nice.”

Then, just weeks after being placed in London's high security hospital Broadmoor, Bryan killed again, throttling fellow patient Richard Loudwell, 59, with a flex and smashing his head on the ground.

Loudwell had told staff he was being bullied by Bryan but his pleas for help were |“ignored”.

Yesterday two damning independent reports were released. The first into Bryan's care while living as an outpatient and a second focusing on his care inside Broadmoor — both revealed a long list of failings by psychiatric and social services.

East London NHS Foundation Trust and West London Mental Health NHS Trust both apologised but revealed nobody had been disciplined as a result.

Belfast Telegraph