AUSTRALIA: INSANE TREATMENT OF THE INSANE

Wouldn't it be just dandy to have the kid of one of these irresponsible cops stabbed?

A woman charged with stabbing her nine-year-old neighbour seven times has been allowed to return home on bail. The woman, 29, attacked the boy with a pocket knife last Sunday just after 6.30pm, police said. Department of Human Services authorities are now with the woman, who is autistic, and her family to assess if she should be moved following an emotional appeal from the boy's father.

The boy was stabbed three times in the chest, one narrowly missing his heart, three times in the back, puncturing one of his kidneys, received a wound to his hand and lost a litre of blood.

The woman lives across the road from the victim's Brunswick West home and was initially allowed to return home without charge due to "extenuating circumstances regarding her mental ability", Victoria Police spokesman Sen Const Leigh Wadeson said. The woman was sent home after being deemed mentally unfit for questioning. However police confirmed this morning that she had since been charged with intentionally causing injury and recklessly causing injury and has bailed for a future date.

The boy came home from the Royal Children's Hospital yesterday afternoon after requiring surgery, his father 'Ray' said. Along with having to cope with his physical injuries, the single father said his son was living in fear knowing his attacker was just across the road. "He looks out the window and looks back, he's a bit scared," he said. "When he was in the hospital he was having nightmares and although he wanted to come home in a way, in another way he was was a bit reluctant."

Ray said he was angry the woman had been bailed to be allowed to return to her housing commission home opposite their block of flats. "I just can't believe she's out," he said. "I would have thought she would be in hospital or a psych ward or something."

Health Minister Bronwyn Pike said the Department of Human Services had only been told of the incident this morning, which is why they had been slow to act. Ms Pike said something had gone wrong in the way the matter had been handled by the police. "While I'm not blaming the police... the police did what they could when the incident occured but unfortunately they rang the child protection line," he said. "The tried several agencies and often in these very complex cases it;s not clear what kind of support this person needs."

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U.K.: Stalker death coroner slams bureaucracy. Says it is no solution

A police culture of “bureaucracy and blame” that hinders officers in their fight against crime was condemned by a coroner yesterday. At the end of an inquest on a beautician shot dead by a stalker at Harvey Nichols, Paul Knapman, the Westminster Coroner, said that police were constantly required to tick boxes and fill in forms. He said a never-ending paper trail had been created in forces merely to prevent lawyers from blaming and humiliating an officer involved in an investigation.

He made his comments as he ruled that Clare Bernal, 22, was unlawfully killed when Michal Pech shot her four times in the head as she worked at a perfume counter. The former Slovakian soldier, who was high on cocaine, then turned the gun on himself. He had been jailed earlier for stalking the beautician.

Dr Knapman said that police could not have prevented her murder, and any mistakes made in assessing the danger Pech posed were “not serious”. He said: “Here is the mischief — the present-day infection of the requirement to have more and more paper trails and computer trails. These result in assertions I hear all the time in this court by lawyers, who say to policemen, or doctors, or prison officers, ‘Because no record of doing something exists, you didn’t do it’. But far better to use your brain and think, rather than tick boxes and sign at the bottom.”

He praised PC Bibi Shah, who handled Miss Bernal’s complaint that Pech was stalking her. He said that although she did not formally record the threat that Pech posed, she was “very assiduous”.

Pech served more than a week in jail after breaching an order banning him from going near Miss Bernal. The former security guard had bombarded her with text messages and threatened to kill her. For four months he did not approach Miss Bernal, but in September 2005, shortly before he was due to be sentenced for stalking her, he shot her dead.

The inquest was told that officers had failed to fill in a form to assess the risk Pech posed. Dr Knapman said that he would write to the Metropolitan Police to urge it to stop officers recording investigations merely because there could be a complaint.

After the inquest Miss Bernal’s mother, Tricia, said that the police had failed to assess properly the risk that Pech posed to her daughter. Sandra Horley, chief executive of Refuge, said: “I am appalled by the coroner’s words.”

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(And don't forget your ration of Wicked Thoughts for today)