Why do medics treat public safety as only a secondary concern?

SENTENCING Ryan Blacknell to be detained indefinitely in a psychiatric hospital after the killing of Ella Parker, Judge Richard Foster told her family: ‘He may never be released and if he is, it will be under the most stringent of conditions.’

I’m sure the judge believed that would happen. Indeed, it’s a common refrain from the judicial authorities following killings by people with serious mental illness.

But in my experience, after dealing with hundreds of such cases, killers such as Blacknell are regularly released without sufficient long-term monitoring. Not enough care is taken by the authorities considering the release of seriously mentally-ill people who have committed awful crimes.

They can fail to assess all the risks properly and are often too optimistic about the prospects for the future. The system is not open or transparent, it is not subject to any meaningful public scrutiny.

Blacknell was given a ‘hospital order’ under the Mental Health Act, which meant he would be detained in a secure hospital for as long as his doctors deemed necessary. The Act requires doctors to treat patients in what is called the ‘least restrictive environment’.

Many psychiatrists believe their primary duty is to their patient, with the public’s protection only a secondary concern, which leads to a pressure to release patients early.

Astonishingly, the law allows mentally ill offenders who

kill others to apply for release within six months of conviction. Many bereaved families would not consider that to be justice.

The Ministry of Justice has to approve the release of such patients, but officials are largely dependent on what the psychiatrists tell them, and we know from previous cases that their reports may not always be entirely accurate.

Shockingly, it means that Blacknell’s case, while deeply troubling, is hardly unusual.