Double death fault of system: coroner

By PAUL YANDALL

Community care for the mentally ill has led to an increase in suicides and homicides, such as the axe murder of Malcolm Beggs by his paranoid schizophrenic flatmate Lachlan Jones, says the Auckland coroner.

In his finding yesterday on the 1999 murder-suicide, Mate Frankovich called for a relaxation of privacy laws so that anyone in danger - such as Mr Beggs - could be told about the psychiatric condition of someone close to them.

He also warned that in his view, the trend towards treating psychiatric patients outside hospitals had gone too far.

"While I do not advocate a return to the draconian days where people with even a minor mental disorder found themselves spending the rest of their days in a mental institution, nevertheless the present swing to 'care in the community' has some distinct disadvantages, as has been evidenced by the number of suicides and homicides that have taken place."

Mr Frankovich ruled that Malcolm Beggs should have been told that 19-year-old Jones, a paranoid schizophrenic who answered his ad for a flatmate, was dangerous.

Mr Beggs did not know that Jones had just discharged himself from Te Atarau acute psychiatric unit at Waitakere Hospital against medical advice.

Mr Beggs, a 25-year-old diesel engineer, died on August 30, 1999. His body was discovered in his bed with extensive head and neck injuries, inflicted when Jones attacked him with an axe and a knife during the night.

Jones was found dead in the garage from self-inflicted carbon monoxide poisoning.

Mr Frankovich said it was "unacceptable" that a Waitemata Health staff member gave Mr Beggs vital medicine to pass on to Jones - medicine, it appeared, that was not taken.

Such was the lack of professional care for Jones, and the anxiety expressed by Mr Beggs and another former flatmate, Michael Churchwood, over his behaviour, that Mr Frankovich stated:

"It would appear laymen such as the late Malcolm Beggs and Michael Churchwood had a far better assessment of Jones than the psychiatrists."

Malcolm Beggs' father, Auckland cabinet maker Brian Beggs, urged the Government and the Waitemata District Health Board to heed the coroner's findings.

He said disclosure of Jones' history could have saved his son's life.

Lachlan Jones' father, Owen Jones, said his son's death had little to do with lack of money and more to do with health professionals not doing their job properly.

He said his son should not have been released from hospital.

"The report's a damning indictment of the New Zealand health service and those who work within it.

"Everybody works under stress and under pressure but [Waitemata Health] took short cuts."

He said insufficient care was taken in assessing his son.

"The system fell down because people didn't look hard enough. Money will not solve that. You need people prepared to do their job properly and it seems to me that at the moment you haven't got that."

Waitemata District Health Board chief executive Dr Dwayne Crombie said staff who assessed Jones had acted on the best information available at the time. Two reviews of the case had cleared anyone of any wrongdoing. "They showed that no one individual can be blamed for what happened, that a whole series of events ... led to this tragedy."

He accepted the coroner's findings, which he called reasonable, but said issues such as funding and privacy needed to be addressed by the Government. Health Minister Annette King said any law changes Mr Frankovich recommended that could help avert a similar tragedy would be considered.