| Flowers in Gods Garden
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30/06/02 - Man of the People:
Yes, lock them away BEFORE they strike
David Mellor
The People
A HULKING brute called Howard Hughes abducted little Sophie
Hook from the back garden of her aunt's home, sexually
assaulted her and threw her broken body into the sea.
When Hughes was arrested for the killing in Llandudno,
North Wales, in 1995, no one was much surprised. He
was a disaster waiting to happen.
"A ticking time bomb" the locals called him.
But all they could do was wait for him to explode.
I was still an MP at that time. And with Sophie's father
I campaigned for a change in the law to allow such dangerous
monsters to be locked up BEFORE they committed a terrible
crime.
After all, why should an innocent have to die before
a person known to be dangerous can be confined. It's
common sense. Isn't it? But common sense is a long time
coming.
To its credit this is an issue this Government tackled
much more readily than the Tories. Even so, progress
has been painfully slow.
Three-years ago Jack Straw as Home Secretary said it
should be done. Eighteen months ago a White Paper was
produced, and this week they published a draft bill
amongst much back-slapping and self congratulations.
But not quite enough to conceal the sad fact that this
bill won't be introduced into Parliament in the autumn.
Why not?
It should be because the case for change is overwhelming.
Every fortnight in this country an innocent victim is
murdered by a discharged mental patient.
And often the victim is selected entirely at random.
Like Jonathan Zito, a 27-year-old musician who was waiting
for the tube when a schizophrenic called Christopher
Clunis pushed him in front of a train.
OR Lin Russell and her daughter Megan. How can we forget
them? Bludgeoned to death six years ago by a ne'er-do-well
called Michael Stone.
Stone's career of crime is the classic example of how
tolerant we are. He had previous convictions for attacking
a man with a hammer. Stabbing another near to death
and wounding a police officer in the eye. In that last
case the judge predicted Stonewould kill someone. But
just a few months before he killed the Russells and
maimed the other daughter, Josie, he had been released
from a mental hospital even though he was known to be
highly dangerous. And the rest as they say is history.
But those who forget the lessons of history are doomed
to repeat them. That's why this grizzly trail of violence
continues to this day. This very week 19-year-old schizophrenic
Doraj Miah, suspected of killing art teacher Hazel Prager
in Essex onTuesday, was turned away from a mental hospital
after her death.
A policeman working on the case said: "It beggars
belief. He was clearly ill and urgently needed medical
help but couldn't get it."
So the bill Labour proposes can't come soon enough
for me. Under it people can be detained if deemed dangerous
even if their condition, like Michael Stone's - he was
diagnosed with a personality disorder - is not thought
to be treatable.
Schizophrenics who need medication to keep stable in
the community can at long last be forced to take it.
Common sense as I say, but can you believe it, Tory
leader Ian Duncan Smith will campaign against the bill.
He says it's wrong "to detain indefinitely"
people who have done no harm to others. He trumpets:
"The mentally ill have a right to be heard and
wewill give them a voice."
ARE you nuts yourself, Ian? Don't you realise, you
berk, it's the public who need protection not the next
Michael Stone.
No wonder a top Tory confided to me this week that
IDS has a new nickname - In Deep Sh*t.
The bill might be watered down in Parliament. The European
Court of Human Rights might rule against it. Detention
will still depend on tribunals agreeing, and these bodies
have a dreadful reputation for accepting psychiatrists'
babble and releasingdangerous inmates to kill again.
As for the psychiatrists they get things wrong all the
time.
So the slaughter of the innocents, like Sophie, like
Lin and Megan, won't necessarily stop. But a new law
will be a step in the right direction. So come on David
Blunkett.
Get on with it! |
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