Parents decry mental health services after son’s iron bar attack

Friday 05 November 2021

The parents of a young man with paranoid schizophrenia, who hit his father in the head with an iron bar, told the Royal Court he had been “let down by the system” as he was sentenced to UK mental health treatment yesterday.

The 22-year-old – who Express has chosen not to name - has a history of mental health issues dating back five years, including visual and auditory hallucinations, but had not been admitted to a psychiatric hospital prior to his offence.

In early January 2020, he had been described by neighbours as talking to himself, trying to give a cigarette to an imaginary figure, and appearing "unwell".

He had also not been taking medication consistently since late 2019, something which appeared to result in a deterioration of his mental health.

On the morning of 6 January, his father was awoken by a "smack to the head", seeing the man holding a piece of angle iron and "growling and making angry-sounding noises". The attack left him with three deep wounds.

Having left the property, the man was arrested later that morning on suspicion of grave and criminal assault, and was admitted to Orchard House in March 2020, before then being transferred to UK facility Brockfield House for specialist help.

The doctor currently looking after the man at Brockfield House told the Royal Court that the man was suffering from paranoid schizophrenia, and was acutely psychotic at the time of the offence.

He said that the young man had described hearing voices at the time of the attack, and had told him his father wasn't who he said he was, was in disguise, and was going to hurt him.

Both of the man's doctor and another doctor at Brockfield House agreed that he should be given a treatment order with restrictions, something which the Crown, represented by Advocate Sam Brown, and the man's defence, Advocate James Bell, reiterated.

Advocate Bell highlighted how his father was sympathetic, saying that he could "only feel empathy for my son", and that the wider family had also stood by the man, sending "thoughtful, kind and caring letters."

The Advocate also noted the discontent of his parents around mental health support offered at the time, reading another comment from his father which said: "I felt in a way let down by the system and ultimately feel there is more that could have been done to prevent things."

Summing up, Commissioner Julian Clyde-Smith, sitting with Jurats Jerry Ramsden and Steven Austin-Vautier, said that the Court was "satisfied from the evidence we've heard that there is a clear causal connection between the offence and the defendant's mental disorder".

He noted again how the man's parents said they felt "let down" by mental health agencies at the time and the lack of support they received for him, and that he appeared to have "fallen off the radar".

He also acknowledged the man's father's comment that he was a "kind and considerate young man".

The court handed the man a treatment order, which will see him remain at Brockfield House in Essex, with reviews from doctors being sent to the Attorney General every six months.