[6] In March 1993 a social worker had warned that Armstrong was "likely to be a risk to any child he comes into contact with" but Cleveland County Council failed to act on the report.
[4] The case highlighted a number of issues including social housing policies for single men, communication between governmental agencies, standards of psychiatric care and the conduct of the police search operation.
"[14] On 30 June 1994, Palmer was playing at a neighbour's house in Henrietta Street, Hartlepool, after being collected from nursery school by her stepfather, John Thornton.
[15][16] Police first called at Armstrong's flat on 1 July while conducting initial door-to-door inquiries during which residents were asked to answer a questionnaire aimed at tracing her last movements.
On 3 July two detectives spoke to Armstrong; they noticed that his previously "co-operative, friendly and helpful" demeanour had changed, and that he then appeared "very shifty, on edge and looking very worried".
[5][6] On 30 June 1994, Armstrong, who had been drunk "for two days solid, partying for his birthday, at different people's houses and pubs and clubs," arrived home by taxi at 15:30, about the same time that the ice cream van pulled in to Henrietta Street.
Armstrong then took his dog and a bottle of cider to the nearby beach and began running in and out of the sea for two hours until neighbours reported him to the police who arrived and told him to go home.
However, while on remand he admitted to the murder and revealed his plan to feign insanity in a letter to crime author Bernard O'Mahoney – who had posed as a woman in hope of getting a written confession from the killer.
In June 1997, Palmer's mother, Beverley Yates, launched a £200,000 compensation claim against Tees Health Authority and Hartlepool and East Durham NHS Trust, alleging negligence for allowing Armstrong to be released from their care.
[22] The claim was struck out in February 1998 in the High Court by Master Hodgson who ruled that Armstrong had made no direct threat against Palmer and her family.
He said: "In the absence of such a specific threat I think it is impossible, as the law currently stands, for me to hold that the hospital in these circumstances owes effectively a duty (of care) to the world at large.
[25] On 1 July 1999 Lord Justice Stuart-Smith upheld the previous High Court ruling that there was no connection between the health authority or the hospital and Palmer.
[26] After a number of years during which very little was reported about the Rosie Palmer murder case, Armstrong returned to the headlines in September 2001 when he was granted Legal Aid to pursue a £15,000 compensation claim against Bernard O'Mahoney for "breach of confidence".