'Stressed' father batters his 2 yr old daughter

[Lovecat]

story here

Poor little girl. It says he's been sectioned, shame he couldn't have gotten help sooner...

He is detained under section 2 of the Mental Health Act....it is for 28 days,( very unusual to extend it under a 2...),and the primary purpose is to thoroughly assess the situation, followed by initial treatment if necessary. As he is being detained under a s.2 it would indicate either his difficulties are not clear at the present time or that they have changed substantially since he was last sectioned..At the end of the 28 days a fresh application can be made for a section 3, to enable treatment proper to begin...this can be for up to 6 months.
A proportion of people detained under section 2 turn out not to have mental illness but some other problem.

Just read through the whole thread, and just to clear up a few errors....no psychiatrist actually sections people, they make a medical recommendation...usually along with the patient's own GP,( or if they are unavailable another specially trained doctor ). An experienced social worker, trained in the law and mental health, then decides whether or not,( and it quite often is 'not' ime...),to make the application to the managers of the hospital where it is proposed to detain the patient. The social worker is the key professional....they have a big decision to make, and are usually people with years of experience and do not usually succumb to having the wool pulled over their eyes. Sadly sectioning patients is not that rare,( it is a way of accessing resources sometimes..like a hospital bed or aftercare...especially in London ).
You may recall Ian Huntley was initially sectioned,( under s.2 ), and was later found not to be suffering from any type of serious mental ill health. People do horrible things for all sorts of reasons......it is not always because they are 'mad'.

I understood that the father was initially on suicide watch as he appeared to be trying to harm himself. Presumably they tranqued him up and took him to a cell until he could be assessed.

I also understood that the mother did everything she could to protect the child - reports made that pretty clear.

The cause of the attack at this point is speculation - everyone will just be hypothesising possibilities.

But as other people have said, this is more common than we like to admit in our society - although I don't know the figures.

Tragic and heartbreaking.

This taken from MIND's website:-

"Mental health problems can affect anyone, rich or poor, young or old, shattering the lives of those affected and the lives of the people close to them. One in four of us will experience a mental health problem at some point in our lives. Each year more than 250,000 people are admitted to psychiatric hospitals and over 4,000 people take their own lives".

The case of this man's family (amongst others) has highlighted issues that many of us are unwilling or unable to talk about. Mental illness is no respector of persons; any one person can suffer from a mental illness at some point in their life. It is devastating for both them and their families. Mental illness can and does destroy families. Sufferers need proper support, care and understanding.

ripeberry - much (((((((((((hugs)))))))))))))
Your story moved me very much and I take my hat off to you for trying to understand.

""and sadly some mumsnetters gorgeous toddlers in their teens may well have schizophrenia"
I don't think we need to hear that really"

Yes, but we do. It's particularly important if you have teenagers who might take drugs which affect their mental health too. Knowing there are risks helps people look out for things.

Absolutly Xenia.

I would be extremely concerned if my teenager was partial to cannabis/skunk

skunk induced psychosis

Many of the young men that we have seen recently in an area of birmingham have extreme psychosis- nearly all were partial to skunk/cannabis.

scary stuff

I'm sure that's what triggered things for my neighbour. I wonder if part of the reason his partner persuaded him to relocate to the country was to lessen the tempation. Many people with mental health problems self mediacte with drugs too, which doesn't help much when street drugs (esp. canabis) are getting so potent.

Noellefielding - I'd be trying to harm myself too if I'd just battered my baby into a coma.

He must have been out of his mind at that point - who wouldn't believe he was mentally ill?

A fully grown man wouldn't have to go into any kind of psychotic rage to kill a two year old. One punch would do it.

Heard voices ... How many murderers do you think say that?

All of them, that's how many.

Bobby....psychiatry is a bit more sophisticated than that...we don't just assume everybody who loses their temper is mentally ill.
Hearing voices wouldn't necessarily mean you were ill either.
Nor would being suicidal.
It's much more complex than that....the social worker making the applcation would have taken all factors, medical/social and protection of the public into consideration.It is unlikely this poor man is faking it.

All murderers claim to hear voices do they??

Bobbysmum- if you are going to make all these sweeping generalisations about mental illnesses at least try to back up your claims with some credible information.

your lack of insight into something that you are so vocal about quite frankly riles me.

If you did some research into some of your 'claims' you would see that you are talking complete and utter tosh.

People like you only re-inforce the stigma/ignorance surrounding mental health.

bobbysmum07 - I disagree. I don't think murderers do generally claim that, and besides it would take more than them syaing it for him to have been sectioned. Just thinking back, but TBH none of the murderers I work with claim they heard voices when they committed the offence.

Most murderers plead insanity. It's a fact.

Whether or not they're believed is dependent on a number of factors, I suppose, the key one being history. As this man ostensibly didn't have any (and managed to hold down a £500,000 job to boot), he certainly must have appeared unhinged. Who wouldn't have though in his position?

Given the time of day that this happened, he's far more likely to have lost his temper.

horriffic

What are your stats to back up that claim bobbysmum?

How do you know that he had no history of a mental illness?

Just because he had a successful career, this doesnt disqualify him from being mentally ill

I don't have 'stats'. I'm expressing an opinion here based on what I know having grown up in a police family.

It's a very common thing for murderers to claim insanity. Which bit of that do you find hard to believe?

I actually find it hard to believe that someone can continue to make these claims and then back them with the 'fact' that it must be true because your father- in the police force tells you so.

unbelievable.

Are you for real? or just trying to aggrevate people on here?

But I don't think it is common for people to actually be believed and to be sectioned for it.

Not my experience either: FILs was police sargent in custody office for several years; I now work in prison with prisoners who have committed some serious crime since murder.

Actually a plea of insanity is very rare nowadays. Usually it would be a plea of dimished responsibilities - thing this is differetiated between further down the thread.

I also do have some prisoners I see who do have mental health issues, but are not in secure hospitals due to no places available. These are not actually the nurderers though, normally much lesser crimes actually. And pretty much aall are/have been drug users.

I agree that most of these people are not believed. It doesn't stop them claiming it though in the first place.

even if he is suffering from a mental illness i dont think he is deserving of any sympathy.there are many,many people suffering from mental illnesses who dont kill their children.its cases like this,when 'hearing voices' etc are mentioned,that cause such a negative view of these illnesses.

No point expressing a dissenting view here, divastrop. They're all city executives who know people suffering from mental illnesses. They're predisposed to be sympathetic towards this bloke -- who anyone in the real world would recognise as a monster.