Clause 5
Mental Health Bill [Lords]
3:00 pm
Meg Hillier (PPS (Rt Hon Ruth Kelly, Secretary of State), Department for Communities and Local Government; Hackney South and Shoreditch, Labour)
My right hon. Friend may not be aware that I am representing the family of a mental health patient who had been in and out of the Homerton hospital in my constituency for two years, being treated for suspected schizophrenia. On 7 July last year, he murdered a man by pushing him under a tube train at Highbury and Islington station. Everyone, including the defence counsel, believed that he would be put in Broadmoor for the rest of his life under sections 37 and 41 of the Mental Health Act 1983, but to our surprise, Broadmoor professionals have judged that because he has a personality disorder he will not be put in a mental hospital, but will go to prison. Tomorrow, he will be given a prison sentence, yet he has a clear mental health problem.
We must remember the people involved—not just the murder victim and his family, but the family of the patient and the patient himself. I have sat through two and a half days of debate listening to legal points being made, but we are dealing with people. My constituent’s mother comes to see me in great distress; her distress, and that of her family and the patient, will not be any less if he is put in prison.