'Very ill' man unlawfully held in psychiatric care

The High Court has ruled that a "very ill" man diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia is being unlawfully detained in a psychiatric hospital.

However, the court also ruled it is entitled to make orders providing for a process leading to a valid detention order in the man's case.

As it was "beyond doubt" that the man was "very ill" and in need of treatment which "could only be given in the context of detention", Mr Justice Michael Peart said he would not make a formal order at this stage and would adjourn the case for a week to allow the sides reach agreement on an appropriate order in the case.

"This is in his own interests as well as those who may be endangered in the event of his release being ordered."

The judge said he was satisfied the court has jurisdiction to make an ancillary type of order which would facilitate the putting in place of arrangements to allow a process to be invoked which would lead to a valid detention order being made.

David Kennedy SC, for the man, said his client was willing to remain in voluntary detention in the hospital and had no problem with the one week adjournment.

Mr Kennedy had earlier accepted there was no deliberate flouting of the legal provisions by the hospital or other personnel involved in the case, and that they had at all times acted in what they regarded as the man's best interests.

In his decision on the man's challenge, the judge said the issue was how the transitional provisions of the Mental Health Act 2001, which came into force in November, were operated.

Those provisions were intended to permit a "seamless transition and continuation" of detention, already in being under the 1945 Act, to detention under the 2001 Act.

He found the man's detention was unlawful on grounds of an error in how the transitional provisions were operated, but stressed there was no suggestion of bad faith by anyone involved.

He said the man had been detained at the hospital for various reasons, including as a voluntary and an involuntary patient, from 1994 when he was diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic.