Donaldson probe told of ‘twilight’ problem

Press, 5 July 1983, Page 1

Donaldson probe told of ‘twilight’ problem

PA

Wellington

Final submissions to the Donaldson Commission of Inquiry yesterday commented on the “twilight zone” between the health and judicial systems surrounding patients such as Donaldson.

Psychiatric hospitals could not act as jails even though it might mean discharging patients likely to commit crime, the commission heard.

The commission, which is inquiring into lan David Donaldson’s discharge from Porirua Hospital, finished sitting after hearing final submissions in Wellington and will now prepare its report to be presented to the Governor-General, Sir David Beattie, by August 31. The report will be tabled in Parliament.

The commission plans to consult the Wanganui police computer policy committee, with a view to widening the scope of information on it so that special patients would be clearly identifiable.

Donaldson, suspected of murder, was found dead in his booby-trapped car at Pauatahanui on April 26.

A convicted child molester, he was discharged on trial leave from Porirua Hospital because he was not regarded as mentally disordered under the Mental Health Act.

If a committed patient

does not fall within that definition he cannot legally be detained.

Counsel assisting the commission, Mr Craig Thompson, said that there seemed to be unanimity that Donaldson was not suffering from a mental disorder towards the end of his confinement, that his personality disorder was not treatable, and that he was highly likely to continue to offend.

“With one voice, the views were that he would continue child-molesting,” he said.

Counsel for the Wellington Hospital Board, Mr David Howman, said that under law, Donaldson had to be freed and Porirua Hospital acted properly in doing so. It was “most definitely” not the task of psychiatric hospitals to act as jailers. “Psychiatrists are clinicians; their profession is to treat and care for those who are mentally ill, not to preventively detain persons solely on the possibility that they may repeat criminal acts,” he said.

Mr Howman emphasised that the number of patients who fell into the “twilight zone” was very small.

Counsel for the police, Mr Ken Stone, described the “twilight” problem as the most disturbing matter which had arisen in the inquiry. “Both sides (prisons and hospitals) have been quite blunt: ‘They do not belong to

For the Health Department, the Director of Mental Health, Dr Basil James, said that although the placing of an offender with a personality disorder was crucial, there was no adequate provision. Donaldson was transferred from jail to Lake Alice Hospital’s maximum security villa as a special patient half-way through a two-year child molestation sentence.

He could have been discharged when his sentence was completed, but Donaldson remained in the villa for a further five years as a committed patient before being transferred to Porirua.