Category Archives: Mental Health

The Inadequate Act

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The Witchfinder notes recent criticisms of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 by the judiciary.

Burning Money.

Imagine lots and lots of money, burning. This is functionally indistinguishable from imagining a Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards case in the Court of Protection.

I like Mr Justice Mostyn – he is one of my favourite judges. This article is about a recent public judgement in which – like many others – he has felt the need to comment about the lack of protections for those subject to the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA). The Witchfinder includes no information not in the public judgement.

The case concerns the safeguards that should be made available to a mentally incapable man. The nature of the man’s incapacity is not really important. What is important is the way this judgement further throws into sharp relief the inadequacy of the safeguards under the MCA.

In order to make the judgement less dehumanising, Mostyn refers to the man as ‘George’. George is not his real name. Unfortunately it appears that George is a sexual deviant who needs to be confined, strip searched and to have his phone-calls and correspondence monitored for the safety of others.

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Book Review – American Bombshell – Rachel Marsden

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The Witchfinder enjoys a book by controversial Canadian author Rachel Marsden.

Americal Bombshell Book Cover

The beautiful Rachel Marsden graces the cover of her book.

Rachel Marsden is a prolific and well-travelled Canadian author, a former TV news host who has written for national and international publications world wide. She is frequently vilified by the left because of her willingness to challenge their opinions in provocative and often satirical ways.

In real life Rachel is a sweet intelligent and charismatic woman with A-list model looks. However, given a writing tool of any kind she is unable to resist provoking leftists. Like many Conservative women she is often subject to discriminatory slurs on her mental health and morality such as in this despicable thread from left-wing hate site Democratic Underground.

The Witchfinder himself does not agree with nor endorse all of Rachel Marsden’s views but often enjoys the visible distress of the leftists who read them.

We turn then to the book, “American Bombshell: A Tale Of Domestic And International Invasion”. The book itself is an obvious Roman-à-Clef. Its lead character Catherine Carston is a Canadian born self-described Conservative who starts off working in Canadian journalism, before travelling to America and later to France to work as a TV Conservative.

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Sent To Prison for Talking to a Lawyer

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An article about a terrifying judgement of the Court of Protection in which a man’s daughter was imprisoned for contempt for taking him to see a lawyer to challenge his placement in a care home by the local authority. And for witchcraft. Yes really, witchcraft.

If your local council places you in a care home and you or your family object can you talk to them about it? Can you talk to a lawyer? Or would that be contempt of Court punishable by imprisonment? What if your family helps you? Would they be in contempt?

Most reasonable people would say a resounding “No” to the question of Contempt. Step forward HHJ Cardinal – the circuit judge with the courage to say “Yes!”

The case of SCC v JM, and ors is reported on Mental Health Law Online and is an anonymised public judgement. The Witchfinder publishes no information other than what is already in the public domain. The document has been missed by the national media so far, which is a shame as it is a horrifying and clear cut scandal. The case concerns an elderly man, JM, who suffers from Alzheimer’s syndrome and has been placed in a care home. There is apparently some form of dispute about his residence, which has led to litigation in the Court of Protection.

JM has three children who disagree with the local authority. This is not uncommon. Your humble correspondent the Witchfinder is a law student who often advises such people pro-bono. About 75-90% of the time the local authority is right. Roughly 25-10% of the time there is something to be said for the other side. About 10-5% of the time it is a horror story.

The disturbing thing about this case is that, according to the judgement, an order was made by Judge Owen on 19/05/2012 that prohibited the respondents (the old man’s children) from helping the vulnerable elderly man challenge the placement – “the respondents should not encourage JM to leave or to ask to leave his placement, or discuss with him the possibility of moving back home, or remove him from the jurisdiction of the court.”

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