AN EXPERT mental health group today said it was vital that managers at Calderstones NHS Trust were "honest and open" with the public.

Michael Howlett, director of the Zito Trust, said the trust should admit there were patients with convictions for serious offences.

He said if there were fears about the security of patients, then the trust should also do everything in their power to communicate openly with residents.

He said: "It is difficult to get the balance right. Houses have got to go somewhere and medium secure units have got to go somewhere.

"But the most important part is about communication between the trust and the public.

"The trust should be open and honest with the public about what type of people are in the unit and what the security arrangements are. "If there are real concerns about the possibility of patients absconding, which there appears to be, then these concerns have to be taken seriously.

"It is in the public interest that these issues are raised -- particularly if there is a growing number of assaults on staff and there are violent patients in the unit.

"Most people in medium secure units are mentally disordered offenders although not everybody would have committed an offence."

The Zito Trust was set up in 1994 by Jayne Zito and Michael Howlett.

It is a registered mental health charity which campaigns for reform of the mental health policy and law affecting the severely mentally ill living in the community.

It was formed after Jonathan Zito was killed in 1992 by Christopher Clunis at London's Finsbury Park Tube Station.

His widow, Jayne Zito, campaigned for an inquiry and the inquiry report into the care and treatment of Christopher Clunis, who was suffering from paranoid schizophrenia, was published in February 1994.

Since 1994 there have been more than 60 published independent inquiry reports and there are currently about 40 under way.