Re Harewood

[2010] QMHC 23

MENTAL HEALTH COURT

CITATION:

Re Harewood [2010] QMHC 023

PARTIES:

REFERENCE BY THE DIRECTOR OF MENTAL HEALTH IN RESPECT OF NICHOLAS IAN HAREWOOD

PROCEEDING:

No 0072 of 2010

DELIVERED ON:

7 October 2010

DELIVERED AT:

Brisbane

HEARING DATE:

7 October 2010

JUDGE:

Philippides J

ASSISTING PSYCHIATRISTS:

Dr J M Lawrence
Dr F T Varghese

FINDINGS AND ORDER:

That at the time of the alleged offences the defendant was of unsound as described in Schedule 2 of the Mental Health Act 2000 (Qld); 1.   

That the defendant be detained to The Park High Security Authorised Mental Health Service;2.   

Approval of limited community treatment confined to escorted leave on the grounds of the hospital and in the terms provided in the submission from the Director of Mental Health.3.   

CATCHWORDS:

MENTAL HEALTH – DECLARATION OR FINDING OF

MENTAL ILLNESS OR INCAPACITY – where defendant charged with arson and the attempted murder of his mother – where defendant suffers from schizophrenia – where defendant held persecutory beliefs and displayed paranoid behaviour – whether defendant was of unsound mind at the relevant times as described in Schedule 2 of the Mental Health Act 2000 (Qld)

Mental Health Act 2000 (Qld), Schedule 2

COUNSEL:

S Crofton for the Defendant
D Lang for the Director of Mental Health

S Vasta for the Director of Public Prosecutions (Qld)

SOLICITORS:

Legal Aid Queensland for the Defendant
Crown Law for the Director of Mental Health
The Director of Public Prosecutions (Qld)

PHILIPPIDES J:

1. Nicholas Harewood is charged with one count of arson on 19 January 2010 and one count of attempted murder on 4 February 2010. 

1. The circumstances in relation to the charged offences are not disputed.  The arson charge concerns a fire that occurred at a unit at New Farm where the defendant resided with his mother and which occurred when the defendant was alone at the unit.  The defendant disclosed to Dr Grant his involvement in that fire. 

1. After the fire the defendant and his mother moved to Pullenvale to live at the residence of the mother's partner.  Some two weeks later, on 4 February 2010, the defendant’s girlfriend, who was present at the home, was woken at 2.00 a.m. by the sounds of screams and found the defendant attacking his mother repeatedly with a knife.  The defendant's girlfriend confronted the defendant who handed the knife to her and was thereby able to prevent further attack by the defendant upon his mother.

1. The defendant was seen on the 4th of February 2010, while on remand, by Dr Phillips who noted that he was, “guarded, suspicious, hyper vigilant” and considered that he was at high risk of self-harm and suicide and recommended referral to the high secure in-patient service, giving a tentative diagnosis of schizophrenia.

1. The Court has received comprehensive reports from Drs Scott, Grant and van de Hoef, who have all also provided oral evidence.  All are unified in their clinical opinion that the defendant suffers from a mental illness of a schizophrenic nature and that at the relevant times he was suffering from that mental illness.  The uncontradicted clinical evidence is that in relation to both charged offences, as a result of that mental illness, the defendant was deprived, at least of the capacity to know he ought not do the acts in question.

1. I note that the report of Dr Scott, who is the defendant’s treating psychiatrist and first saw the defendant in February 2010, chronicles the history that he was able to obtain both from the defendant and from the defendant’s family and girlfriend.  It is apparent that they noted significant behavioural changes in the defendant in 2008, including that he intermittently was barricading himself in his bedroom as a result of his persecutory beliefs, that he had paranoid beliefs that wolves were coming to get him and that he was being poisoned, and that he described bruises and aches and pains which he believed were the results of beatings from unidentified people during the night.

1. The defendant’s girlfriend was able to persuade the defendant to see a GP who opined that the defendant may be suffering from schizophrenia and referred him to a psychiatrist.  Unfortunately, the defendant did not pursue that course of seeking psychiatric assistance. 

1. The defendant's condition worsened from late 2008 and he came to believe that his mother and her partner were poisoning him, because he was, “a source of energy”. 

1. The view of Dr Scott was that the defendant was psychotic and suffering from paranoid schizophrenia at the relevant times and deprived of the capacity to know he ought not do the acts.

1. Dr Grant preferred to rest with a diagnosis of schizophrenia and whilst also offering the opinion that the relevant deprivation was one of the capacity to know, considered that there was support for the view that there was also a deprivation of the capacity of control, at least in relation to the attempted murder charge.

1. I note also that Dr van de Hoef, in her comprehensive report, referred to the various features of the defendant’s significant mental illness, in concluding that there was support of a defence in relation to both charges.

1. In the circumstances, I find that the defendant was of unsound mind at the time of both of the alleged offences. 

1. In relation to the question of management, it is clear that the defendant will require very extensive and ongoing treatment for his very serious mental illness.  Dr Scott has recommended that the defendant at present only be accorded quite restricted limited community treatment confined to escorted leave on the grounds of The Park and that view is also adopted by both of the assisting psychiatrists. 

1. Accordingly, I order that the defendant be detained to The Park High Security Authorised Mental Health Service.  I approve limited community treatment confined to escorted leave on the grounds of the hospital and in the terms provided in the submission from the Director of Mental Health which requires that the defendant by escorted by two nurses and for up to two hours up to three times per week.