May 23, 2005
by Angela Hussain

The high profile murder of a policeman by a man diagnosed with schizophrenia provoked a range of responses from mental health campaigners.

Glaister Earl Butler was convicted on Friday of stabbing a police officer to death as the officer tried to arrest him. Earl Butler attacked DC Michael Swindells, 44, on a canal towpath in Birmingham on May 21 last year.

The 49-year-old was convicted at Birmingham crown court of manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility, which he admitted.

He was cleared of murder after the prosecution accepted that medical evidence showed he had an abnormality of mind at the time of the killing.

The mental health charity Sane - headed by former Sunday Times journalist Marjorie Wallace - said the case revealed the "inadequacies" of treating some mental health patients in the community.

The charity also questioned how effective assertive outreach teams were in assessing risk, arguing that 24 supervised accommodation was more appropriate.

Sane's view was backed up by some newspaper editorials which criticised the effectiveness of mental health services in protecting the public from dangerous people diagnosed with a mental illness.

In response, Mind emphasised that since the introduction of community care there have not been an increase in homicides committed by people with a psychiatric history.

The high profile killing has again accentuated key differences in opinion between Mind and Sane, two of the UK's leading mental health charities.

Mind's chief executive added that he was appalled by the "knee-jerk and sensationalist" reaction by some media reports.

A Daily Mirror editorial entitled "Crazy Policy" in the Daily Mirror described Butler as a "violent psychopath who should never have been on the streets". The editorial accused the mental health service of failing to control "such a dangerous man". A Daily Express news report was headed "Protect lives by keeping psychopath killers caged"

A Sun editorial questioned "the safety of the public depending on a mentally-ill man remembering to take his medication". Following DC Swindells's death, some 462 tablets, or 18 months' worth, of anti-psychotic drugs were found at Earl Butler's property.

Newspapers reported that the mental health problems of the Jamaican-born mechanical engineering graduate appear to have begun when he was made redundant from his job with Rolls-Royce in 1982, after joining the company as its first black trainee.

It was said during the trial that he had believed the police were responsible for him losing the job.

Earl Butler was first referred to Stafford social services in 1992 when it was told that he had been living without electricity for two years. In 1994 he kicked a neighbour in the head in an unprovoked attack.

Between 1994 and 2001 Earl Butler was sectioned three times.

The court was told that during his stays in hospital he was often verbally and physically violent towards staff and other patients.

Sue Turner, chief executive of the Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health Trust, whose outreach team was caring for him at the time of the killing, said staff who visited him before the incident thought he was taking his medication and did not believe he showed signs of a "relapse".

An internal inquiry would be carried out, she said.

An independent inquiry will also be conducted by the Birmingham and Black Country Strategic Health Authority.

Mrs Wallace told the Times: "The trouble with outreach and other teams is that they give a 'snapshot picture' of a person's mental state on which risk assessments are based, instead of 24-hour contact when deterioration of mental condition would become more evident."

In the end, policy and treatment came down to cost, she said. "Providing supervised, 24-hour accommodation is expensive. Living alone is less expensive," she said.

The conviction of Earl Butler came three days after the government announced in the Queen Speech that it was to press ahead with its controversial mental health bill, condemned as draconian by an expert parliamentary committee. But the government said the bill will protect the public from dangerous people diagnosed with a mental illness

Mr Justice Calvert-Smith ordered Butler to be detained indefinitely at Ashworth high security hospital in Liverpool.

See also:
March 29, 2005: Government again under fire over plans to change mental health law - parliamentary committee warns that planned legislation would erode civil liberties

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