Amazingly foolish treatment of the violent mentally ill in Australia

Most mentally ill people are not violent but those who already known to be violent should be treated with extreme caution -- for their own sake and for the safety of others.

A psychotic former bikie who was shot dead by police after a knife-wielding rampage in Maryborough on Wednesday might still have been in jail or in an institution had mental health authorities not set him free. Former Nomads bikie gang member Clay Hatch, 35, was deemed fit to stand trial for three violent armed robberies he committed while high on a cocktail of drugs and alcohol seven years ago. But the Mental Health Tribunal acquitted him on the grounds of mental illness.

The disclosure came as the victim of Wednesday's terrifying attack said he "thought I was dead" when a crazed Hatch pressed a knife to his neck and threatened to slit his throat. Hatch's court file shows his rapid descent into psychosis in mid-2000 while living with his parents on the Gold Coast. He intravenously injected amphetamines and drank large quantities of rum during the three days when he robbed the same service station twice and held up a bank with his father's rifle. He bashed a bank customer and a service station worker whom he also held hostage. The psychiatric report says Hatch believed the Devil was controlling him and had named him "Sleepen the Anti-Christ". He had the numbers 13 and 666 tattooed into his earlobes.

Hatch was arrested soon after robbing the bank when police found him walking around the Gold Coast Racecourse holding a pillowcase stuffed with stolen cash. He was detained at the Gold Coast Hospital but released on conditions, including that he live with his parents, undergo ongoing psychiatric treatment and stop using drugs and alcohol. In a letter in support of a bail application, Hatch's parents said "prior to Clay's fall from grace he was always a gorgeous and compassionate human being".

The court documents show Hatch started drinking alcohol and using marijuana when he was 12 and by his mid-teens had graduated to amphetamines, LSD, petrol-sniffing and hallucinogenic mushrooms.

His victim Richard Feeney, 21, described how Hatch burst into the supermarket yelling and screaming then jumped over the counter. The shop assistant said he thought Hatch was "either mentally ill or high on drugs". "He was just yelling at me, screaming at me, just telling 'em he was going to slit my throat," he said. "I thought I was going to die. I can remember it all."

Report here



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