ANALYSIS: There is little provision to prevent violent attacks by disturbed young people, writes Carol Coulter, Legal Affairs Correspondent
A very disturbed young man, but one capable of distinguishing between right and wrong, was how a forensic psychiatrist described Brian Willoughby. This distinction meant he could be convicted of murder and sentenced.
During the court case he emerged as the ringleader of an attack on Brian Mulvaney, where he was kicked and beaten so severely he died.
It also emerged that such an attack was waiting to happen. Already Brian Willoughby had three convictions for serious assault in 1997 and 1998, when he was 18 and 19, two years before he killed Brian Mulvaney.
In one attack he walked up to a young man in College Green, asked him if he was gay and then repeatedly stabbed him, causing him to lose an eye. In another he stabbed a young man in Baggot Street, causing him to need 100 stitches. In yet another attack he assaulted a young man on a bus.
During the murder trial his mother told the court that he was in a demented and psychotic state in the week before the killing of Brian Mulvaney. She said he suffered from severe Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and was "totally delusional and paranoid about his family". He was also extremely homophobic, which had prompted the earlier attacks.
She described how she had attempted to have him admitted to Tallaght hospital the week before the murder, because he had slit his wrists, but was sent away because there were no available psychiatric beds.
This is not the first time a young man has been sent away from a psychiatric hospital, only to commit a murder later. Brendan O'Donnell is the most notorious case of a disturbed young man who did not receive appropriate psychiatric help, and who went on to kill three people. A young man in Drogheda whose family unsuccessfully sought psychiatric help killed his baby nephew in recent years.
Getting help for a violent and disturbed person is not easy. The only two legal avenues are getting the person committed under the Mental Treatment Acts, or getting him/her made a Ward of Court.
Committing a person under the Mental Treatment Acts requires two doctors to certify him/her. The person is then committed to the care of a mental hospital. But this requires getting the doctors to see the person in the first place, and this may not be easy, especially if he/she is already acting in a violent way.
Having a person made a Ward of Court can restrict his/her movements, and they become the responsibility of the court, but this is intended for people who cannot manage their own affairs. It is unlikely to be available to a disturbed person who is living at home.
Such a young person can be a threat to the family. Here the only option is to have him/her barred, but homelessness is then added to their difficulties.
For understandable constitutional reasons, there is no provision for preventive detention. The High Court has inherent jurisdiction to have a young person under the age of 18 detained for their own good, but not to protect others.
But there is a huge lack of secure psychiatric services for children and young people exhibiting violent tendencies. Lawyers and social workers often say that, untreated, they will go on to seriously hurt themselves or others.
"All you can do is wait for them to kill somebody," one lawyer said.
