It was a deeply moving interview. I have spent many an hour with a grief-stricken family, but this was the first time I’d ever heard anyone say they were sending text messages to a deceased relative even though the phone was no longer in service.

‘It’s my way of speaking to him and telling him I miss him’ he said. He was talking about his father who was killed in June 20.

I’ve read that the same killer (who was psychotic and suffering from paranoid delusions) was also responsible for the deaths of two other young people both aged 19.

Sadly, it appears that three years earlier a doctor had warned that his mental illness was so severe he could "end up killing someone”.

It came as no surprise then to hear that a Care Quality Commission review had found "a series of errors, omissions and misjudgements" by mental health services, and said that without action the issues identified would "continue to pose an inherent risk to…public safety".

Not long after this I listened to another disturbing interview in which another lady said that the same NHS trust had failed to learn lessons from her tragedy when her mentally ill son had killed his grandfather.

As I listened to these sad stories I was reminded of the word ‘repentance’. Now for many the word ‘repentance’ will sound ‘a bit ‘churchy’, evoking memories of priests and preachers, bells and smells, but this would reveal a failure to understand its full meaning.

The original Greek word for ‘repentance’ pointed to a change of mind and a change of direction and stressed the need for people to ‘do something’ and not simply say ‘sorry’.

When Jesus told the crowds who had gathered to listen to Him to ‘repent and believe the gospel’ for example He wasn’t preaching a rousing evangelistic sermon in church He was telling his listeners that they needed to turn away from the crazy agenda that was driving them into a disastrous war and submit to His authority as their long-awaited King.

Repentance then, implies more than an apology it describes a complete ‘about turn’ resulting in a change of behaviour.

Jesus’ cousin John the Baptist made this very clear when he told his listeners that they needed to ‘Produce fruit in keeping with repentance’. When he was asked what that meant he told his listeners that it could mean sharing their food with the hungry and being content with their wages.

I can think of no better example of ‘repentance’ than the response of the person who trashed my study many years ago. Several microphones conveniently disappeared too. I had no idea who was responsible, but I did encourage the church to pray, and you can imagine my delight when sometime later a postman arrived at my door with a parcel containing several new microphones and a note that said, ‘To right a wrong’.

I (finally) discovered the identity of the repentant ‘sinner’ and it came as no surprise when I learned that the person in question had become a Christian.

By behaving in this way, he/she had given me a perfect illustration of what it means to be truly repentant and also presented me with a life-long challenge on how to behave when I feel sorry for messing up.