Cw v Aw (Remand for Medical Reports)
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judgment Date | 12 February 2001 |
| Date | 12 February 2001 |
| Court | Court of Appeal (Civil Division) |
Court and Reference:Court of Appeal ; B1/2001/0171
Butler-Sloss P, Hale and Arden LJJ
J James (instructed by Lawrence Davies & Co) for AW; M Otwal (instructed by Kaim Todner) for CW; J Agerous (instructed by the Official Solicitor) for the Official Solicitor.
Whether the 12 week time limit imposed under s. 35 Mental Health Act 1983 for the preparation of medical reports applied when the sentencing court was acting under s. 48 Family Law Act 1996 to obtain reports to assist with sentencing for contempt of court.
In the course of family law proceedings, a non-molestation order was made against Mr W. He breached the order, including an attack with a knife on Mrs W. He was arrested and remanded in custody on several occasions; medical reports obtained on his mental condition were conflicting. An order that further reports be prepared was not complied with. The judge, believing that Mr W had been remanded for medical reports under s. 35 Mental Health Act 1983 and had been remanded for the maximum period of 12 weeks, felt bound to proceed to sentence for contempt for breach of the non-molestation order and imposed a sentence of sixteen and a half months' imprisonment. This was on 4 August 2000. Public funding for an appeal was initially refused and only obtained on appeal to the Legal Services Commission; hence an application to appeal was made to appeal out of time. The Official Solicitor did not become Mr W's litigation friend in the interim, though he had been invited so to act earlier in the proceedings.
1. This is an application for permission to appeal out of time by Mr W in a case with a very considerable history. He is at present serving a sentence of sixteen and a half months imposed by HHJ Pearlman on 4 August 2000.
2. The background of the case, very shortly, is this. Mr W is now 29. In 1997 he started to live with, and then married, his present wife. They had a child, the only child of the couple, but she had three elder children who lived with her. Mr and Mrs W lived together for a very brief time, and separated in April of 1998.
3. Throughout the period since the separation there have been problems between the couple. They arise from the state of mind of Mr W, which is bordering on coming within the Mental Health Act, if it is not in fact within it. He undoubtedly has considerable personality problems: whether or not they amount to a personality disorder is another matter. He may or may not be schizophrenic. He had undoubtedly abused a variety of drugs, mainly cannabis but also, at different times, amphetamines, methadone and crack cocaine. He has also taken alcohol to excess. The variety of drugs which he has taken, together with alcohol, have masked his undoubted personality problems so that it has been extremely difficult for the medical profession to work out whether or not he has a mental health condition coming within the Mental Health Act 1983.
4. What seems to be clear is what was said by one of the consultants last year, Dr Herst; that he is impossible to manage in the community. Over the period from towards the end of 1999 through to March 2000 Mr W engaged in a series of both troublesome and violent episodes at the house of his wife and children. A non-molestation order was made on 4 November 1999 with a power of arrest attached. The outstanding examples of breaches were that on 9 February 2000 he was found stamping on the top of his wife's car, and on 6 March 2000 he attacked his wife in the former matrimonial home, when he cut her left hand with a Stanley knife and she had to have considerable surgery to repair it. Thereafter he made a series of threats to kill, and on 24 March he attempted to enter the house and tried to steal her bag and her keys. At different times he has engaged in a degree of self-harm. There have been a number of possible suicide attempts. Whether they were intended as suicide or not it is difficult to say. Certainly he cut his wrists on more than one occasion. He was arrested in March 2000 and has been incarcerated ever since.
5. There are been four separate reports on Mr W. The first was in Pentonville, by Dr Herst on 12 April 2000. Dr Herst said that he had antisocial personality disorder, and it was he who...
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