THE mother of a mentally ill man who stabbed shoppers in a Suffolk town centre has criticised health officials and claimed the authorities ignored concerns her son was not given the level of care he needed.

THE mother of a mentally ill man who stabbed shoppers in a Suffolk town centre has criticised health officials and claimed the authorities ignored concerns her son was not given the level of care he needed.

Speaking yesterday following the conclusion of an investigation into the handling of her son's case, Jan Cobbold from Bury St Edmunds, said she was angry with the county's mental health team for brushing her complaints "under the carpet."

Her son Guy Raggatt was arrested in January after attacking four people in Bury town centre with a screwdriver. The 28-year-old, who suffers from paranoid schizophrenia, has since been indefinitely detained to a psychiatric unit after admitting wounding charges.

In July, Mrs Cobbold, 50, said the Local Health Partnerships NHS Trust failed to act until it was too late, despite her son's 12-year history of mental illness.

Officials from the authority have now completed their investigations into the case but Mrs Cobbold said, they have not provided her with the answers she needed.

"As far as I am concerned, the mental health team is hiding behind Guy," she said. "They have to ask his permission to tell me exactly what went on, but he won't give that permission because he doesn't trust the health officials and thinks they will hold the facts against him.

"They (the Local Health Partnerships NHS Trust) do not think they have done anything wrong, but it seems to me they are brushing this under the carpet.

"They say Guy had a proper level of care, and they put procedures into place for him which were then followed, but I believe differently.

"I am really angry. I'm still deciding if I will try to take this any further."

The attacks in the Kings Road and St Andrew's Street area of the town left one victim with a collapsed lung.

But Mrs Cobbold, who saw her distressed son on the morning of the incident, could not approach health officials for advice as to how to deal with Mr Raggatt, as their office was closed.

She lodged an official complaint with the body, and the internal investigation followed.

Nobody from the Local Health Partnerships NHS Trust was available for comment.