JOHN FINNEGAN said last night that he might take legal action against St George’s Mental Health Trust for its role in his brother’s murder.

He has led the campaign for a full inquiry into the killing and said it was important that lessons were learnt. If that meant legal action, he and his four surviving brothers and sisters would take it. “We wanted to get through this today, but now that it is over we will sit down and see whether we should take legal action and discuss it with lawyers,” he told The Times.

“I feel there has to be some come back, that we need to hammer home this point as strongly as possible. But we would also like the Crown Prosecution Service to bring charges against the trust. The NHS has a statutory duty of care and it failed in that duty.”

He said that, more than two years on, he was still struggling to come to terms with what had happened to his brother, whom he called “the light of the family’s life”.

“It is still unbelievable that we should all be involved in something as horrendous as this,” he said.

Five members of Mr Finnegan’s family were at yesterday’s press conference. In a heated exchange with trust officials, they said they were furious that Nigel Fisher, the former chief executive at the time of their brother’s death, had not attended the publication, leaving Peter Houghton, his successor, to take the flak.

Teresa Kelly, 35, one of the victim’s sisters, said: “He should be here instead of Peter — it is disgusting that he is not. Where is he now? Sitting pretty in his new job and being paid by the NHS.

“I am very dissatisfied. It will be with us for ever and I will not rest. None of us will rest until we are completely satisfied with the end result.”

The inquiry was set up only after a sustained campaign by John Finnegan, who lobbied MPs and ministers until John Reid, who was then the Health Secretary, ordered the local healthy authority to set it up. Mr Finnegan said: “It is exactly what we wanted. It is thorough and robust. It makes very damning conclusions and makes some really positive recommendations about how to improve things.”

But he said there was little point in going after individuals responsible. “There clearly are individuals who were to blame, but hounding them won’t bring back Denis.”

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