How sad, should have been sectioned years ago. This is what happens with "care in the community" instead of properly funded refuges for the mentally sick. Criminalisation of such a helpless case is wicked IMHO.
I'm definitely with Canary42 in principle. (The guy needs help, not imprisonment). However I'm slightly alarmed at the simplistic solution of 'section him', as that also means a loss of liberty.
Offering him cognitive behavioural therapy might be an alternative first step. Otherwise anyone who is diagnosed as having an autism spectrum disorder might easily be locked up. Since that includes me, I feel compelled to object!
Chris, he's been poorly treated but in the scheme of things, some cbt might be a bit further down the line
//Truscott, who was jailed in 2005, 2009 and 2011 for his actions at the property, repeatedly set fire to their shed, tractor, enclosures and hay - killing a calf in one blaze//
I suspect that part of the problem, Humbersloop, is an anomaly in the law.
If the judges who previously jailed the guy were told that he had a 'personality disorder' they weren't allowed to send him to a psychiatric hospital (where he might have found help) because such a disorder is regarded as 'incurable' and the law only allows courts to sentence people to psychiatric care if they can be cured of the mental disease that afflicts them.
While he can never be 'cured' he can be helped to live within society (without offending against it) but the current law prevents our courts from passing a sentence that offers such help.
//Judge Philip Wassall said Truscott, who has autism spectrum disorder, would spend the first five years of his prison sentence receiving hospital treatment.
He will serve an extended licence period of five years on release from prison.//
He will be transferred to a psychiatric hospital...