Fran O'Sullivan: Prison is not the place for such an obvious 'nutcase'

The primary question must surely be in these politically correct days, "How demonstrably crazy does someone need to be before psychiatrists apply the insane label?"

The father of convicted killer Clayton Weatherston believes his son was acting "out of character" with the person his family knew when he stabbed brilliant economics postgraduate Sophie Elliott to death.

It's not hard to feel an element of sympathy for Roger Weatherston. Particularly given his straight-up comments to the Elliott family. His honest statement that the Weatherston family did not realise their son and brother needed help, and their commitment to continue to "love him" were courageous given that the public was baying for his blood.

But Weatherston snr's faith that the prison system will deliver his son the "help he clearly does need" is misplaced.

Already headlines have promoted the line that a $50,000 to $100,000 bounty has been placed on Weatherston's head as an incentive to another prisoner to "off him". Nowhere, though, has there been any factual backing for this claim - including where the money will come from. But news reports say this story prompted prison authorities to put Weatherston into an at-risk prison unit.

The blogosphere is full of vengeful "hang 'em high" comments from people who believe that at the very least Weatherston should be subject to male rape as a punishment.

Unfortunately, the prison system is unlikely to offer up much to remedy his obvious head problems.

Two psychiatrists - including the director of Mental Health - who assessed Weatherston before the trial found he did not have a "disease of the mind" when he stabbed and cut his former girlfriend 216 times.

He was variously a "vulnerable character" prone to narcissistic rage, had the features of anxiety disorder, was obsessive and had been affected by an increased dose of antidepressants and lack of sleep when he killed Sophie Elliott. There was also little doubt that Weatherston had "dissociated" during his frenzied killing episode; he was controlling and "appeared to have an inflated sense of his own achievements", felt nauseous after reading details of what he had done.

Mental health director David Chaplow said it may not be unreasonable to believe excess medication played a part. But Chaplow and Professor Philip Brinded both said a defence of insanity could be ruled out.

Brinded's diagnosis was that Weatherston was suffering from a personality disorder of the cluster B category dominated by narcissistic personality traits with some histrionic and borderline traits.

The two psychiatrists' opinions stating Weatherston was not insane when he killed Elliott ruled out an insanity plea.

Unfortunately, the defence team probably had no option in the circumstances but to opt for the provocation defence as it sought to justify their client's (insane) view that Elliott's behaviour and sexual one-upmanship drove him over the line.

Anyone watching the performance of this "borderline" personality on nationwide television as he endeavoured to destroy Ms Elliott's reputation and smiled after he described the sound of his weapon crunching through to her spine must surely have thought there was something more insane at play in Weatherston's makeup than a mere borderline personality.

He was not obviously schizophrenic like gunman Stephen Lawrence, who shot dead six people and wounded four others at Raurimu in 1997 and was later found not guilty by reason of insanity and detained as a special patient at Kenepuru Hospital.

Yet Weatherston is demonstrably not normal either. It is hardly likely that so many New Zealanders would now be openly talking vengeance if he had been ruled unfit for trial on the grounds of insanity, or committed under the Mental Health Act to get the help he certainly needs.

Therein lies the problem. Under current legislation any killer who is committed as a special patient could be freed well ahead of the time they would have to serve in prison as a criminally convicted murderer.

So by not ruling Weatherston insane the psychiatrists have probably ensured he will stay in confinement for a more lengthy term. But a suitable case for treatment? I doubt it.

The National Epidemiology study in Prisons (1999) found 10 per cent of the prison population have significant mental health issues that impact on service delivery. A Census of Forensic Mental Health Services carried out in 2005 found that prison services, already struggling to deal with mentally afflicted prisoners, will come under further pressure because of the future demand on forensic services from the projected growth in prison numbers.

The Government closed the National Secure Unit at Lake Alice Hospital some years back. Some forensic patients are now sent from prison to "secure beds" attached to public hospitals.

In Weatherston's case he is a highly educated nutcase who should arguably be incarcerated for much of his adult life. But not in prison - in a high security forensic unit.