Editor note: Bold italics are mine
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The Age (Australia)
A mentally ill man who killed his mother in 1988 - but is allowed out
of the state's maximum security psychiatric hospital on day leave - has
lost a bid to be allowed to smoke in the hospital grounds despite
concerns the smoking ban could worsen his mental state.
Supreme
Court Justice Peter Riordan on Tuesday dismissed a claim by the man, who
cannot be named, that the hospital's smoking ban introduced by the
Victorian Institute of Forensic Mental Health, known as Forensicare, on
July 1, 2015, had breached his human rights.
In his 84-page
judgment, Justice Riordan said the man had been held at the secure
Thomas Embling psychiatric hospital since killing his mother in 1988
when suffering from delusions and hallucinations. He was found not
guilty of murder due to mental impairment.
The man, who has a
history of paranoid schizophrenia, was moved to the hospital's 16-bed
Jardine community reintegration unit outside the complex's high security
perimeter in 2014 after his mental health improved.
He has been allowed to leave the hospital grounds unescorted since
September 2014 between 7am and 9pm, subject to staff being notified the
day before and a psychiatric assessment conducted an hour before he
walks out.
Justice Riordan said the man claimed he was addicted to
smoking and was concerned the hospital's smoking ban would "cause
significant deterioration of his mental state"... READ MORE
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