And There Will Be No Consequences For The NHS...

...all the consequences are borne by the victims, as usual.

In 2021 Williams was admitted to the Coniston ward at Whiston Hospital near St Helens. However Dr Higgins stated in court: 'Despite noting multiple bizarre behaviours, and concerns raised by the family, no diagnosis is made, other than the diagnosis of autism being taken as fact, and no treatment is offered, although a recommendation is made that he be followed up by the Early Intervention Team.'

She added: 'They (the family) were mocked for trying to get him help. It was very poor clinical care indeed.'

Not content with incompetence, they threw in the usual lying too:

It was after that he spent a week in Whiston hospital but while staff assured the family that he was sleeping well, they knew he was posting on Facebook all through the night.

How did they know? Probably because that's what they were doing themselves... 

Imposing an indefinite hospital order Judge Andrew Menary, KC, the Recorder of Liverpool said that Williams was described as 'a delightful, loving, caring young man who in normal circumstances would never have done anything like this.'

He told the defendant, who appeared via video link: 'Whether the events of this night of May 10, 2022 could have been avoided by much earlier diagnosis and intervention he will never know for sure.

'But the views of the consultant psychiatrists in this case - that there has been a wholesale failure of mental health provision and numerous missed opportunities to identify and attempt to treat your serious and enduring chronic condition of paranoid schizophrenia.

'This includes what is described by Dr Higgins as a catastrophic misdiagnosis that you suffered from a neurological-diverse condition when it is her very firm view that you are not autistic.'

It doesn't matter what the judge says, the NHS will avoid any serious consequence for what, in any orther industry, would have the HSE crawling all over them... 

He continued: 'The previous responses of clinicians appear to have been pathetically inadequate and might be a reflection of the gaps in mental health provision currently available or might be the result of overworked or under-resourced practitioners.

'Sadly it is the experience of this court that this situation is not a rare occurrence and the consequence is utter devastation of yet another family.'

It's not a case of 'underresourcing', it's a failure to do the basic job they are paid to do because they know full well they are in no danger of facing consequences for failure. Until that stops, this will continue.

"...poor policing, weak prosecution, dereliction of duty in medical care and a series of catastrophic missed opportunities ..."

The families of the victims of the Nottingham attacks have vowed to take their fight for accountability “to the next level” on the one-year anniversary of the killings. In a joint statement, the families of Grace O’Malley-Kumar, Barnaby Webber and Ian Coates, who were killed by Valdo Calocane in the early hours of 13 June last year, said they had instructed a legal team to help them “leave no stone unturned on our quest for answers”.

And so they should - who wouldn't wish them every success?  

Calocane was given a hospital order after pleading guilty to three counts of manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility owing to paranoid schizophrenia, as well as three counts of attempted murder. In May, the court of appeal rejected an application to increase his sentence to include jail time, with the lady chief justice, Sue Carr, saying “schizophrenia was the sole identified cause of these crimes”.

Solely identified as such by those who wanted to hide the fact they were accomplices. 

The families said the outcome “was disappointing but not unexpected”, and blamed it on an “utterly flawed and under-resourced criminal justice system”.They said it was “because of a weak investigation and prosecution, over-reliance upon doctors’ evidence and archaic out-of-date laws that Calocane receives no punishment for his heinous acts. “We recognise his previous diagnosis of mental illness, however, maintain that he knew what he was doing, he knew it was wrong, but he did it anyway. And therefore, he is a murderer,” they said.

Indeed he is. And if they don't win this, he won't be the only one let out to kill again...  

Sounds Like It's Not Just Foreign Care Workers That Can't Understand English...

...the useless Tory government can't, either:

Minimum standards of English in care homes will not be raised despite the death of a 91-year-old woman after care workers struggled to describe her condition while calling 999.

So, we desperately need these people to work here, but if their lack of English language skills means they can't communicate, it's perfectly fine? What happened to 'Conservatives' to make them think this made any sense?

An inquest into the death of Barbara Rymell found that the primary school level of English required for a health and care visa was 'wholly inadequate' for those working in the 'direct care and protection of vulnerable people'. Mrs Rymell died at Ashley House Residential Home, in Langport, Somerset, on August 8, 2022, when she became trapped by a mechanical stairlift after a fall and staff were unable to free her.

Senior coroner for Somerset, Samantha Marsh, issued a prevention of future deaths report, warning the government that 'deaths will continue' without more rigorous language tests, The Guardian reports.

And the Home Office said 'Whoa, no! We might have to work a bit harder!': 

Despite this, the Home Office has ruled out raising the required standard of English, telling the coroner that this would be 'very difficult' to assess and manage.Home Office minister Tom Pursglove said: 'We do not believe raising the level of the English language requirement for skilled workers would be appropriate.'

And that, Reader, is just one of the many, many reasons why the Tories are heading for electoral collapse.  

Care Rights UK, which campaigns on behalf of residents and their families, said it was 'beyond comprehension' that ministers had rejected the call.

Oh, if only it was. 

Hoots Mon!

There's more to be worried about than a moos loose aboot your hoos if you live north of The Wall next year (and for this, you can blame your government):

Scotland could become the new XL Bully capital due to breeders dumping the unwanted dogs north of the border before the new ban is implemented.

Images of the dogs being moved in cages have spread on social media platforms with one captioned 'We found safe homes for them all in Scotland'.

Another post showed six of the dogs in a van being transported north from Manchester ahead of the ban on the breed.

Did anyone really believe that someone who wanted one of these grotesque mutts in the first place would be a responsible pet owner who would spend the necessary money to comply with the exemptions (neutering, muzzling, insurance) in the ban? 

Open Up Another Cell...

...and put those who freed him in it.

A Jack the Ripper obsessive who tried to kill a pensioner in a barbaric riverside knife attack had been freed after a warning he posed an imminent risk of 'serious injury and potentially death', a court has heard.

It's the only thing that will work. After all, all those reports that judges call for clearly mean nothing... 

Anthony Roberts was jailed for life with a minimum term of 28 years and nine months on Tuesday by a judge who said the circumstances of the 56-year-old's release 'were for others to examine'.

Examine, and actually act on. There needs to be consequences for failure. 

The court was told Roberts, of Green Hill, Worcester, has a chromosomal disorder and was diagnosed with an 'untreatable' psychopathic personality disorder in 1993.

Passing sentence, Mrs Justice Ellenbogen said she had read six parole assessment reports written in 2013, 2016, 2017, 2019, 2020 and 2021. The final report in May 2021, the judge said, found that Roberts - who absconded from prison in 2019 - posed a risk of harm specific to females aged 16-30 and of 'serious injury and potential death of any female victim'.

'She (the report's author) assessed the risk as imminent and high,' the judge added.

And what do those tasked with oversight say? Would you believe, Reader, the usual? 

A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: 'This was a despicable crime and our heartfelt sympathies are with the victim and their family.

'A Serious Further Offence review is underway to establish the full facts of the case and it would be inappropriate to comment further at this stage.'

Ah, a review. More cosy make-work for the State's apparatchiks.  

A Locked Room, This Time..?

Ahsan Zia, 33, was suffering from delusions and hallucinations involving the late Queen and that there was a plot to rape and kill him, Newcastle Crown Court heard.

He launched a 28-second attack on Michael Matthews, 55, in his victim's room on the acute Fellside Wing of Newcastle's Hadrian Clinic in April last year.

If the races were reversed we'd be seeing this a bit further up the webpage, I suspect... 

Mr Dry said Zia had used cannabis the day before the attack, but there was no evidence that this had any influence on his behaviour when he lashed out.

No, just a stunning coincidence. Like all the other cases.  

Consultant forensic psychiatrist Dr Pablo Vandenabeele, via videolink, told the court Zia suffered from a treatment-resistant form of paranoid schizophrenia.

We put down rabid dogs. We don't send them to an animal shelter.  

Zia will be treated at the maximum security Rampton Hospital, the judge said.

Another triumph for the mental health advocates, no doubt.  

Sounds Like A Self-Correcting 'Problem' To Me....

Almost 3,000 prisoners in England and Wales stuck behind bars under an abolished “irredeemably flawed” indefinite sentencing scheme should be re-sentenced, MPs and peers have said. The indefinite nature of jail terms under the imprisonment for public protection (IPP) scheme has contributed to feelings of hopelessness and despair that has resulted in high levels of self-harm and some suicides among prisoners, according to the justice select committee.

Gosh, how to react to that news..? 

Blimey, this is seeing a lot of use lately...

The committee’s report, published on Wednesday, says that an independent panel should be appointed to advise on the process of re-sentencing IPP offenders, acknowledging that it is likely to be a complex task.

It further calls for the current time period after which prisoners can be considered for the termination of their licence after release should be halved, from 10 years to five. Neill said: “After a decade of inertia the status quo cannot be allowed to continue.”

Why not? Has it kept people safe? And by 'people', I don't mean the dangerous criminals... 

Wait, Isn't This A Good Thing..?

Britain is returning to the era of asylums, a top doctor has warned, after figures obtained by The Mail on Sunday show the number of mental health patients locked up in psychiatric hospitals against their will has spiralled over the past four decades.

Why is this considered a 'warning'..? We should be celebrating!

Experts say the situation is at least in part a symptom of a wider problem in the NHS: the practice of defensive medicine. This is when doctors offer treatment or an intervention that may not be warranted, simply in order to avoid the possibility of a complaint or legal action should something go wrong.

I'm not sure why they should be so worried, since they are hardly ever face any consequences... 

Retired consultant psychiatrist and Care Quality Commission reviewer Dr Duncan Double said: ‘When I started working on an acute psychiatric ward in 1984, we used to pride ourselves on having an open-door policy.

‘In the 1960s and 1970s there was a drive to close old psychiatric institutions in favour of supporting mental health patients in the community, but, if anything, things have become more bureaucratic and more restrictive.

‘Doctors have become more fearful of public safety or being blamed, so may be more likely to section patients inappropriately. We’ve returned to the worst aspects of the asylums era.’

No, we've returned to the best aspects of them - they kept people safe from the mentally ill and the mentally ill safe from themselves. 

Of particular concern to doctors are people with personality disorders, who make up almost half of mental health patients detained in out-of-area placements. These include borderline personality disorder and antisocial personality disorder, in which patients are unable to control their emotions and behave impulsively and irrationally. They can also harm themselves or others, meaning doctors might feel sectioning them is the safest option.

But Dr Jorge Zimbron, consultant psychiatrist at Fulbourn Hospital in Cambridge, says this can have disastrous consequences.

‘The majority of patients with a personality disorder have a history of abuse, so restraining them is traumatic and won’t be beneficial.’

It'll be very beneficial to those members of the public who'd otherwise be assaulted or murdered by them, though, wouldn't it? 

"He was allowed to be dangerous, untreated, and at liberty..."

Like so very many others:

The MoS revealed earlier this year that a psychiatric team decided not to detain Glover just weeks before the December 2019 attack, even though police had warned that he was planning to run over children.

Now a report by the Independent Office for Police Conduct reveals:

• Glover called Essex Police ‘many hundreds of times’, including on 117 occasions in the eight months before Harley’s death;
• On at least 30 occasions, he made threatening comments, including eight calls in which he threatened to run over children;
• A worried parent warned police that Glover was driving suspiciously near the school and watching children as they went home after lessons.

Despite that, the IOPC probe cleared Essex Police of any blame and makes no recommendations to change its policies or training.

‘Essex Police appear to have acted reasonably in their dealings with him and, having responded in line with the powers available to them in response to his vague threats to kill, cannot be judged to have contributed to Harley Watson’s death,’ it concluded.

Now an inquest has - quite rightly - decided differently. But this is just the one case. How many others are similarly allowed to be at large?

The Refugee Lovers Have Blood On Their Hands Again...

A man who killed a woman in a head-on car smash in Stockport, Cheshire, while he was using a mobile phone has been jailed for five years today.

Mohammed Javadpour, 53, was distracted with his device when he failed to spot a narrow blind bend at 8.30pm on November 12, 2019.

He veered into the wrong side of the road and ploughed straight into Elayne Goodwin's Vauxhall car.

As Miss Goodwin, 56, lay dying in the wreckage of her vehicle and police tended to her at the scene, Javadpour used the smart phone to make contact with a friend and arranged for the device to be taken away.

We aren't told if the 'friend' was charged with anything. Or why the police allowed this piece of shit to meet up with them, rather than being in handcuffs in the back of a police car... 

The phone has never been recovered.

What a shocker.  

Javadpour, from Woodford, Stockport, had previous convictions for driving while disqualified, having no insurance and possessing fake motoring documents with intent to deceive.

He initially blamed Miss Goodwin for the crash before blaming the fictitious driver of a third mystery car which he claimed had fled the scene.

Later, when shown a copy of an independent accident report proving he was in fact to blame, Javanpour claimed to not understand his legal advice.

Eh? How would that ever work? 

Well, Reader, maybe because he's a refugee from Iran. I see no mention here of the revocation of that status. 

Why not?

This Never Occurred To Them Before The Coroner Suggested It..?

'Where there is disclosure that a service user is in possession of an offensive weapon this must be documented; there must be a documented discussion as to the response; the information must be passed to the police; any action taken by the trust and/or the police to be documented.'

For 'service user' read 'potentially dangerous mental patient'...

In his Prevention of Future Deaths report Mr Middleton wrote: 'During the course of that meeting the perpetrator disclosed that he was in possession of a knife, that he was sleeping rough and he needed the knife for his own protection.

'The members of the Dorset Forensic (Mental Health) Team did not probe as to where the perpetrator was sleeping.' He added the fact that he said he was carrying a knife was not probed further by the forensic social worker, who work with offenders with mental health problems.

It was also not recorded at the time in his records and not raised during a Care Programme Meeting - which monitors the package of care people with mental health problems receive - held the day following the disclosure.

Did anyone bother to do their job properly? 

Dorset HealthCare said they accepted the coroner's conclusion and will make changes to 'minimise the risk of such a tragedy happening again'.

Only 'minimise' it, because they clearly know they are employing people who aren't up to the job, and probably cvan't get rid of them... 

Detective Inspector Richard Dixey, of MCIT, said in 2017: 'Ryan died as a result of a brutal knife attack by someone he had classed as his friend.

'His death was tragic and needless and I hope the sentence handed down today will assist Ryan's friends and family in some small way as a step towards closure during what has been a terribly traumatic time.'

You don't think the revelation that it was completely avoidable adds to the trauma, then, Richard..? 

Maybe You Should Change Your Name..?

Because there's nothing liberal about this:

The human rights group Liberty is threatening to sue the government and Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) over the bitterly contested law of joint enterprise, arguing that it is discredited and racist in the way the authorities pursue it.

Or is it simply that the gang culture it seeks to prevent is more prevalent within certain races? Chicken/egg here... 

There have long been accusations, supported by academic studies and parliamentary inquiries, that the gang label is attached disproportionately and without adequate evidence to black and minority-ethnic young men.

Right, sure, ok... 

Lana Adamou, a lawyer at Liberty, said: “We all want our communities to be safe, and for our laws to treat us equally. But joint enterprise is overwhelmingly used against people from marginalised communities, especially young black men, and drags people unfairly into the criminal justice system.

“It’s completely unacceptable that there is still no official data being recorded about how the doctrine is used and who it is used against. By failing to do so, the justice system has been recklessly sweeping thousands of young black men into the prison system.”

Are we supposed to believe that the police simply arrest black and minority ethnic bus drivers, librarians and chemists who just happen to be present on the street when a gang of animals chase down a rival gang member with knives then?  

"His behaviour was very odd and not normal behaviour for anyone."

Baker qualified as a doctor in 1990 and became an oral and maxillofacial surgeon in 1999.

His vandalism of co-workers’ vehicles came to light recently when the GDC held a disciplinary hearing into his actions and decided to issue an interim suspension, which forbids him from working as a dentist until next February.

Clearly, this person has severe issues... 

At the GDC tribunal the lawyer representing the regulator said that the surgeon’s “criminal offending was not an isolated momentary lapse of judgment but rather appears to be something more sustained.

“[His] loss of control and resorting to violent or destructive behaviour [was] a real cause for concern.”

You'd imagine it is. But what did he have to say for himself? 

Baker did not offer any defence, attend the hearing or get a solicitor to represent him.

I'm sure he'll be all better by February... 

If The 'Culture Of Misogyny' Is So Bad...

...why do you have to import more of it?

According to reports in Ireland the man arrested has links with Offaly and south Dublin but has also lived abroad.

Which is the coy progressive press way of saying he's an immigrant from Slovakia.  

Between 1996 and 2020, at least 236 women died violently in the Republic of Ireland.

Why don't we get a figure for men? Is it because it outstrips the figure for women (like this one year) two to one?

We know it is, don't we, Reader..? 

Their names have been written out and remembered individually in recent days. A majority of these women were killed in their own homes, by a man they knew, by men they loved, men they had children with. How do we protect against that?

Well, you could start pointing out to women that 'I love him, I can change him!' isn't a strategy for survival. And you could start campaigning against open borders on the basis that Ireland doesn't need to import more misogynists.

But you don't do any of that, do you? I wonder why... 

Thank Goodness This 'Service' Wasn't Around When I Was Born...

The NHS's only gender service for children believes all girls who do not like 'pink ribbons and dollies' must be transgender, a whistleblower has claimed.

Dr David Bell, a consultant psychiatrist who worked at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust, which runs the UK's only gender identity development service for children, has said the department had a 'rigid, binary construction of gender'.

My favourite toy when I was growing up was a little garage, with all the toy cars to go in it. It had a little inspection pit, a ramp, tiny tools etc. I think my grandad bought it for me because he'd convinced himself he'd get a boy as his first granchild, and didn't want to wait until my brother was born. I loved it, and played with it until it felll to pieces, eschewing a pram and dolly my grandmother bought me to rectify the 'error'.

Did I grow up to be a tomboy or an auto mechanic? No, of course not! I grew up to be someone who would phone the AA to fill me up with petrol if my subscription let me, and as for changing a tyre..! 

If it occurred today and my parents were worried (they weren't, they recognised I was a child) would I end up on hormones?

He also slammed the service's work for putting youngsters on the path to lifelong medical treatment, speaking at a conference organised by Genspect, a support group for gender-questioning children and young people. Dr Bell's comments come after he resigned from the trust earlier this year, nearly three years after his damning 2019 internal report which claimed that the trust’s Gender Identity Development Service, was ‘not fit for purpose’.

At least he did the decent thing, and took himself out of a misfunctioning organisation, instead of staying in and keeping his mouth shut while cashing the cheques. That's pretty rare. 

In the 2019 report, Dr Bell wrote that the service was not fully considering factors in a child’s background, such as previous abuse or autism, which might influence their decision to transition.

It's quite amazing how many of these trans activists also have other mental issues, isn't it? 

The report resulted in the resignation of the trust's governor Marcus Evans, who had worked there for more than 30 years. Evans at the time said he had serious concerns about ‘what is going on in the gender identity world’.

If you were the governor, why did you let it happen on your 30 year watch? 

Sorry, Covid Isn't The Fall Guy Here...

A man who stabbed people at random, killing one and seriously injuring seven others, has been sentenced to life with a minimum of 21 years.

But not for murder, as you'd expect... 

McLeod pleaded guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility, as well as four charges of attempted murder and three charges of wounding with intent.

He was sentenced at Birmingham Crown Court. 

The judge said the 28-year-old was a "significant risk" to the public and ordered him to be detained, initially at Ashworth psychiatric hospital.

Oh, well, I guess we're all safe now...until they let him out again. 

McLeod was suffering from paranoid schizophrenia at the time and was "well-known" to mental health services. However, the judge said he got "lost in the system" after being freed from prison during the COVID lockdown in April 2020.

Really? Gosh. There must have been a lot of covid around in 2019, 2018, 2017  and 2016, then?

The court heard McLeod had been suffering with paranoid schizophrenia since 2012. He had previous convictions for robbery, escaping from lawful custody, possession of a firearm in a public place and possession of class A drugs.

Superintendent Jim Munro told Sky News: "He wasn't under any licence conditions and actively being managed, so he'd come back out having served his sentence."

Don't blame covid for the perennial and consistent failures of the mental health system, judge.  

Now They Are Worried..?

Sir Lindsay Hoyle spoke to Boris Johnson and Home Secretary Priti Patel following the fatal stabbing of the 69-year-old MP in his Southend West constituency.

He added: 'Those people who do not share our values or share democracy, they will not win and we won't let them win. We will continue to look at security, that is ongoing and it will continue.'

Very Churchillian, Sir Lindsay, but Churchill fought to keep the Nazis from landing at Dover. 

What's Border Farce doing under Priti Patel? Escorting them in by the hundreds... 

Every politician is currently thought to have had a security assessment in the constituency, and they get a 'standard' package such as alarm systems, shutters, CCTV and personal alarms for staff.

However, there are concerns that most of the measures are applied to offices and homes, while surgeries often happen at churches or other buildings that might not be secure.

That sounds like a failing of security assessments then. A gap you can drive a truck through.  

A senior Parliamentary source told MailOnline: 'The Commons will have a complete review again. Police need to be at surgeries. It is the only solution.'

We don't have enough police to keep our streets safe, and you want more of them standing idly by while Mrs Miggins complains about the amount of dog poo on the street outside her house? 

It's not, of course, the only solution at all. And you know it.

Good Riddance, And Thank God You've Failed...

Prisons reflect society back to itself: they embody the ways we have failed, the people we have failed, and the policies that have failed, all at immense human – and economic – cost.

We haven't failed the people in prison; they've mostly failed themselves. 

As chief executive of the prison reform charity the Howard League for the past 35 years, reforming prisons has become my life’s mission. In October, I will leave my work with one sad but inescapable conclusion: prisons are the last unreformed public service, stuck in the same cycle of misery and futility as when I arrived.

So you've wasted your life just as surely as those behind bars? How fitting, karma's working overtime here... 

Minister after minister has done nothing to address the central question haunting our prison system: what is it all for?

It's to punish the guilty and keep the innocent safe from their depredations. What else could it be for?  

At the heart of prisons is the fact that they are fundamentally unjust. They embed and compound social, economic and health inequalities.

Ah, yes. If someone commits crime, it's never because they are greedy or bad - it's because they were 'driven to it' by factors outside their control. 

What would your solution be, then Frances, were someone ever stupid enough to grant you any real power? 

The whole system needs radical overhaul, starting with a swingeing reduction in the number of people we imprison. Custody is the most drastic and severe response the state has at its disposal and should only be used in exceptional and rare instances – either for the most egregious crimes, or when someone poses a serious and continuing threat to public safety. Abiding by that principle would virtually empty our prisons of women and children, and drastically reduce the number of men behind bars.

And drastically increase the crime rate. Brilliant plan! 

Over the past 35 years, I hope that I have contributed to making things just a bit better. I am most proud of the work we have done with police forces to reduce the arrests of young people, saving hundreds of thousands of children from experiencing the trauma and lifelong damage of being arrested.

Young people like these, you mean? You sicken me more than they do, 

Surely The Bigger Question Here Is...

A convicted terrorist has been sent back to jail after hiding his job as a lorry driver from police.

Andrew Rowe, 50, failed to declare the vehicles he was driving while employed by Serco as a rubbish collector in 2019, in breach of a notification order.

...why the hell is Serco employing convicted criminals to drive their vehicles? I thought we had a plethora of post lockdown job-seekers?

Prosecutor Peter Ratliff said: 'This defendant lost his job as a consequence of these proceedings.'

Why was he even given it in the first place? Doesn't anyone think before they employ people any more? 

Or is there some quota for employing ex-cons that gets companies grant money or kudos from the government?

If Only We Still Had Hanging...

...because I can't think who deserves it more:

A man who beat his elderly neighbour to death with a cricket bat while she picked herbs for her Sunday roast has been jailed for life.

He tried the 'not guilty 'cos I'm ill, see?' but the jury rejected it. 

Defence barrister Lionel Blackman told Judge Alexia Durran that Unmack had been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia in 2008 and had been under the care of the Reigate Community Mental Health team.

And we can see how effective that was. As always. 

The family also revealed their anger over mental health services which had not managed to prevent Unmack from attacking the pensioner.

Ms Zachery explained: 'It should not have happened and the circumstances should be considered so that it does not happen again.

'Surrey Police and Surrey and Borders Partnership could have done much more to stop this and we hope that no other family will experience what we have again.'

Sadly, it's almost inevitble that they will, because all that happens is the authorities squawk about 'learning lessons' and then go right back to doing what they want to do, which is cooing over the dangerously mentally ill and prioritising their right to freedom over the rights of others... 

The court heard that Unmack had attacked women before, including an elderly woman with who he had previously struck up a relationship.

Even the judge couldn't help himself: 

Sentencing Unmack, Judge Durran told him: 'The jury rejected the defence that you were experiencing a psychotic episode but I accept that a mental disorder has affected your life for over 20 years.'

Wrong, judge. It's affected innocent people. That's what you should concentrate on.