Full circle

The Regional Forensic psychiatric service was available to any patient with a home address in the Yorkshire Health region.  The region spanned some 5,354 square miles with a population of 3.6 million scattered across the counties of Humberside, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire.  McPherson did not have a home address in the region but when the Forensic Medical Examiner, or FME had seen him in a cell several hours after his arrest and arrival at Doncaster police station he had deemed him unfit to be interviewed. He was tearful, withdrawn and uncommunicative. The FME had ordered a suicide watch on the cell.

 

After searching McPherson's car and interviewing Henry and Bernie detectives were still puzzled as to why the incident had occurred in the sleepy South Yorkshire village.  Why was the suspect there in the first place?  The only clue they could come up with was Bernie's conviction that he was the new boyfriend of their daughter Holly, whom they had never met.  Holly could not be contacted but police were keen to speak to her and had asked Leicestershire Constabulary to find and interview her.

 

The break came when a sharp-eyed detective constable reviewing communications from North Yorkshire colleagues in regard to a double homicide had spotted the name of one of the victims 'Ann McPherson' and had made the connection with the name of the supposed boyfriend of Holly.  Frantic communication between Doncaster and Selby resulted in two detectives travelling down the M62 to liaise with their neighbours.  Convinced of the facts North Yorkshire police arrested McPherson on suspicion of murder.  From there he was conveyed to the secure police station at York where again a FME concerned about his state of mind asked for him to be seen by the duty psychiatrist for the area.

After a sleepless night in the cells, a special hearing at Harrogate Magistrates Court was convened and on the evidence of the psychiatrist's report, it was ordered that he be remanded to the prison healthcare wing at York prison. There he was put on a 20/52SH constant observation watch.  He was seen to be withdrawn, uncommunicative to the point of being almost mute.  He was not eating and was seen to be low in mood.  This, together with his lack of medical history, led to the request for an urgent assessment by a forensic psychiatrist who on interviewing him thought him to be severely depressed and at risk of self harm or suicide. The female Psychiatrist was an experienced forensic doctor who gently probed McPherson for his past history.  McPherson felt the need to give up his burden to this kind woman with a gentle voice.  The dam burst and he opened his heart to her.  He was deeply distraught because of his actions now that the numbness of the previous night’s events was wearing off. 

 

The forensic psychiatrist recommended urgent admission to a regional secure unit under sections 2 and 35 of the Mental Health Act 1983.  Coming from Northamptonshire McPherson would normally have gone to the regional secure unit, Marlborough House, in Milton Keynes but as there were no beds available there or in the Arthur Lodge unit in Leicester or the Wathwood unit near Doncaster this was not possible.

 

Besides, as he was well known in the mental health field in these areas it was argued to be inappropriate to place him at any of these units.  Newtown Lodge was approached and having a bed agreed sympathetically to accept McPherson out of area as he was an NHS employee.

 

At the house in Braithwell, McPherson had been hauled to his feet after having his hands secured behind his back with plastic manacles that cut into the flesh of his wrists.  He was hefted out of the house between two large and powerful officers in full body armour after having his rights spoken at him. A jacket was thrown over his head as they emerged onto the deserted street and he was lifted bodily into the back of a police van parked right outside the side entrance that he and Dunton had used less than two hours before hand.

 

He felt small and insignificant. He wondered why they had taken so much trouble over him.  After all, it wasn't as if he was a terrorist or major criminal.  He felt small and vulnerable and the tiredness that had been intruding on his consciousness became overwhelming.  He had no energy and just wanted to lay down in peace.  He had expected in his mind, even at the slow pace it was working, to have been under some sort of siege and eventually to have been asked to surrender.  The suddenness and ferocity of it all had taken him by surprise.  He hadn't seen the police operation unfold around him.  He didn't notice the trained, armed officers close in around the easy to surround home in its prominent position and attach the fibre optic cameras and sound equipment the output from which was beamed the few yards to the big white communications van under the control of the 'Blue Commander'.  He had no idea that everything was seen and heard and that every move was being analysed.  He had no idea that the police psychologist had pointed out that he seemed very distracted, stressed and tired and that this made him both vulnerable and unpredictable.  The psychologist had heard the strain in McPherson's voice and watched the compassion in his treatment of the hostages and concluded that he was certainly not deranged but was in a highly-strung condition.  They had decided that as this was the case they would sit it out and coax matters to a safe end.  No point in these circumstances provoking a reaction and in any case, given the state of the perpetrator, it would not be a long wait; a matter of hours rather than days.  When the officer was taken to relive himself they were all on a high state of readiness and prayed that Dunton would not try to play the hero. Hammond ordered them to be ready for a forced entry.  The stun grenade was primed and armed by the officer standing to the side of the kitchen window.  He trained the launcher on the glass and waited for the command.  Three groups of three officers were gathered ready for the entry. One at the front door with one officer holding a 'battering ram', one to the side of the conservatory and the third pair had scaled the neighbouring wall to drop unseen and unheard by the side passage to the kitchen door. When McPherson sat down again and placed the weapon on the table Sergeant Matt Pearson had reacted to the opportunity.  They were still on high readiness.  The weapon was down. 'Go! go! go! ' he had ordered.

***

Newtown Lodge had been established as a result of a nationally recognised need for medium secure psychiatric hospital services identified in the 'Butler' and 'Glancy' reports.  In 1975, the Government asked the 14 Regional Health Authorities serving England at that time to develop plans for the establishment of such units in their areas.  In North Yorkshire an interim unit was set up in 1983, while a, permanent 48 bed, bespoke unit was built.  Newtown Lodge opened in August 1984 with the purpose of providing admission, assessment and treatment of mentally disordered offenders who were not seen as an immediate and grave danger to the public.  The security arrangements were designed to deter all but the most determined escapees.  The unit was seen by those who ran it as a place for treatment of those who were unable to be cared for in normal open psychiatric hospitals because of difficult or challenging lawbreaking behaviour. And those who, not being dangerous enough to warrant high secure hospital care at Rampton or one of the other high secure hospitals, might otherwise languish untreated in prison.

 

Professionals, managers and planners saw it as a place for treatment, not a prison, with the emphasis on therapeutic care and rehabilitation.  Situated in a built up area and surrounded by other hospital buildings, the unit was now regarded as 'older', it was viewed by those in forensic circles as 'middle of the road'.  It had struggled with recruitment and although it had successfully established a women's service within the existing building it had suffered a number of escapes and absconsions.   Three people absconded from Newtown Lodge between January 1996 and March 1997.  Two failed to return from trips and one scaled the perimeter fence which was lower and not of a construction as set out in the guidelines for such units.  The Medical Director, Dr Edward Handle, had very fixed views of what he wanted to achieve and ran the unit with zealot like megalomania. As a consequence the majority of staff had become ambivalent and unmotivated about their work.  Nurses, the largest workforce, were particularly affected.  The parallels to Arthur Lodge were stark.

 

McPherson was transferred from York prison with three guards. He was handcuffed for the journey to Ed Stewart a five foot-six barrel of a man with a booming laugh.  The three joked and chatted all the way to the unit as if he were not there at times but were not unpleasant to him.  In some ways he felt safe with this approach as he was not the centre of attention and the guards seemed reasonably content; especially Ed and a close colleague of his, Sam, who were both on overtime rates for the transfer.  They saw McPherson as a low risk as far as violence was concerned and did not consider him as an escape risk.  They had been cautious about the risk of him harming himself but as they would soon be handing him over to the' shrinks' it would be someone else's problem soon.  When they arrived at the unit they followed the standard procedure used in transfers of prisoners and took him into the entrance still handcuffed to Ed with one officer leading the way and opening doors and one following the manacled couple close behind.   McPherson felt conspicuous and somewhat humiliated to be being admitted to a unit the likes of which only a few days ago he would have been received at with respect as a senior mental health professional. 

 

Reviews

[John Alexander McFadyen]

and so life explains its self. as does death.

[Claire Twinn]

The puzzle pieces seem to be fitting together as the plot twists and turns.