An unusual course of action was taken by the judge in the case
A convicted killer who decapitated his victim with an axe has been given an absolute discharge for making threats to kill two more people – as he is in a psychiatric unit and unlikely ever to be released.
Paranoid schizophrenic Robert Robertson-Green has been detained after suffering permanent brain damage as a result of a “determined effort” to take his own life.
Robertson-Green, 46, from Cheylesmore, had been due to be sentenced at Warwick Crown Court in February last year after pleading guilty to two charges of making threats to kill two mental health nurses.
But after the case was adjourned for a psychiatric report to be prepared, he made a serious suicide attempt which has left him with permanent brain damage.
That has led to a succession of adjournments awaiting a final prognosis on his mental state – and he is still unfit to attend court, explained prosecutor Ian Speed.
Taking the unusual course for such a serious offence of imposing an absolute discharge, Recorder Stephen Linehan QC said: “Since that time, the defendant made a determined effort to end his own life, resulting in him being hospitalised in a coma for six weeks.
“The consequence is that he suffered injury to the brain with permanent effects on him. He was already diagnosed as suffering from paranoid schizophrenia and he now has additional mental and physical injuries.
“The fact, I am told by a psychiatrist, is that he requires 24-hour care, and he is in hospital as a compulsory patient, subject to a restriction as to his release.
“The opinion is that, for the foreseeable future, he remains a danger to himself and to anyone else he comes across, and he therefore remains under a restriction.
“I see no purpose in prolonging these proceedings, and will therefore order an absolute discharge for those reasons.”
"He is in a psychiatric unit and unlikely ever to be released." We've heard that one before, haven't we children?
