Inquest to examine brutal murder of nurse Lisa Skidmore

An inquest will look into alleged mistakes by the authorities leading up to the savage attack on 37-year-old Lisa Skidmore, who was strangled in her Bilston home by Leroy Campbell after he climbed through her first-floor bedroom window.

Her mother, Margaret Skidmore, aged 81, who was herself attacked by Campbell and left for dead, cheered when told of the decision.

Lisa’s sister Alison Parker, 56, of Finchfield, said: “It’s great news. It means we’re going to get answers at last and people are going to be held accountable.”

The family had asked the Black Country Coroner to resume an inquest because Campbell’s guilty plea at last year’s crown court hearing meant the issues surrounding her murder were not publicly aired.

They believe West Midlands Police, the probation service, parole board and the prison service all have questions to answer, claiming warning signs were not heeded.

They also challenge whether 57-year-old Campbell should ever have been freed.

Such inquests are held when public bodies have ‘failed to protect the deceased against a human threat or other risk’ and have a wider reach than a public inquiry.

Campbell was handed a whole life sentence for his ‘grotesque’ deeds, which included attempting to murder Mrs Skidmore and setting fire to the house in Mill Croft.

At his sentencing in May last year, it was revealed he had committed attacks on other women.

In 1983 he had broken into the home of a nurse and tried to strangle her with the intention of raping or sexually assaulting her, and was jailed for seven years.

In 1992, he was sentenced to 10 years after another raping a woman.

Eight years later he indecently assaulted at knifepoint an au pair at a house in Wolverhampton.

Campbell, a paranoid schizophrenic, was previously jailed for public protection to serve a minimum eight-year term.

He was released on July 25, 2016, after serving 16 years and lived in Bilston before moving to a hostel in Moseley, Birmingham.

He had warned a probation officer six weeks before Ms Skidmore’s murder that the feelings he had experienced before previous sex attacks had returned.

She reported this to Wolverhampton Police, who visited Campbell.

He repeated his comments to them but after further visits said he did not need their help.

The inquest is expected to be resumed in the autumn.