The judge said the handling of Harris' case by mental health services had not filled him with confidence, but he could not be sure if Harris had denied treatment or been turned away.
He added: "From the perspective of a member of the public they see a man who has been sectioned, who repeatedly sought assistance and was turned away, was unsupervised to the extent he was able to stop taking his medication with no one apparently noticing.
"Then someone who goes on to commit an extremely grave offence.
"But the truth is I'm not in a position to resolve the deep conflict."
It seems no-one is.
Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust spokeswoman Victoria Taylor said yesterday, patients were free to choose whether to engage with treatment or not.
True enough.
Ms Fraser insisted her client was not dangerous because he was back on his medication and of previous good character.
How very reassuring.
Judge Ross found Harris was a danger to the public and said only an extended sentence was enough to protect the public.
Harris will have to serve at least six years of that before being able to apply for parole and on release will face an extended licence of five years.
After which time he'll no longer be dangerous, right? Well, who cares - certainly not the people who are tasked with the safety of the public.
2 comments:
I try to avoid government officials and public sector workers like the plague but like the plague they do tend to get everywhere. Those who I do not meet many of the others I read about and but for the odd exception they come across as an incompetent, uncaring and lazy lot. Well meaning many are and actually are deluded enough to think that are doing good when in fact they are part of the problem. There is a cure to this problem it is called anti-statism, libertarianism and the breaking of government sponsored monopolies. However you can give good advice and the chances are nobody will take it as it is counter intuitive to most in the box thinking minds.
Sadly true...
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