In November last year, a mentally ill Pembrokeshire man suddenly attacked and badly injured his parents. Willie and Pat Reynolds were at home with their son Gerwyn near Llanddewi Velfrey when his mental state worsened and he set upon them. Last week Gerwyn Reynolds appeared at Swansea Crown Court to plead guilty to two charges of unlawful wounding and was ordered to be detained indefinitely at the medium-secure Caswell Clinic in Bridgend. He had previously been charged with attempted murder but the prosecution accepted his not guilty pleas.

Here, speaking for the first time, his parents tell how they desperately begged the authorities for help before the attack that ripped their lives apart.

Willie and Pat Reynolds say Pembrokeshire's mental health support system has let their son down.

Just an hour before their son Gerwyn attacked them, the couple say they tried desperately to contact the crisis resolution team which provides support for people with mental health problems in their own homes, and for their carers.

According to Mr and Mrs Reynolds they were told no-one was available to help.

"It was a Saturday evening and I was told that because it was out of hours there was no-one I could speak to," Mrs Reynolds told the Western Telegraph.

"We were referred to St David's Hospital but when I got through I was passed from pillar to post, no-one could help."

The recipient of her final call assured Mrs Reynolds she would be contacted within an hour, but whether that call was made or not, she will never know. In the next 60 minutes, Gerwyn had attacked his parents.

Mr and Mrs Reynolds believe it was their desperation at being unable to summon help that was the ultimate trigger.

"Gerwyn could hear how desperate we were and he didn't want to put any of us through that," says Mrs Reynolds.

Days after Gerwyn was arrested, the Reynolds' claim a psychiatrist told them the crisis resolution team, which they regarded as the vital link to help, had been disbanded two months previously.

However, the Pembrokeshire and Derwen NHS Trust (now Hywel Dda Trust) insisted this was not the case.

"Crisis resolution teams are community service developments, as recommended in the national service framework for Wales, set up to provide support for people with mental health problems in their own homes and for their carers. The Pembrokeshire crisis resolution team undertakes this role locally and has not been disbanded," said a trust spokesman.

Mr and Mrs Reynolds say they begged for help in the weeks leading up to the incident but claim the support that was forthcoming was "wholly inadequate".

They had finally met with a psychiatrist, who changed Gerwyn's medication the day before the incident, but had pleaded for an earlier appointment when they could see his state of mind deteriorating.

"We had been begging for help but there was no-one there for us," says Mrs Reynolds.

"It is too late for Gerwyn, sadly we can't change his future, but the system needs to change so that others don't have to go through what we have been through as a family.

"Gerwyn isn't to blame for what happened, the system is. When a person with mental health problems needs help, every minute counts. It isn't something that can be left until another day.

"If Gerwyn knew that help was coming on that evening he would have calmed down but all he could hear was my desperation from hitting brick walls. He didn't know what he was doing.

"We have got our freedom and the people who should have helped him have theirs, but he has lost his freedom."

The trust said it was unable to comment on the specific details of the incident due to patient confidentiality.

"We are providing support for the family during this difficult time and would like to offer our assurance that an internal investigation is being undertaken in order to ascertain the full facts of this case," said its spokesman.

The mental health and learning disabilities services division of the trust has an annual budget of £36m to provide secondary level mental health and learning disabilities services to Pembrokeshire, Carmarthenshire and Ceredigion.