Mental Health Bill 'is a threat to rights', MPs say

Thousands of mentally ill people will have their "dignity and autonomy" violated, and their civil rights breached by the Government's controversial Mental Health Bill.

In a report to be published tomorrow by the parliamentary human rights committee, MPs and peers will warn that mental health professionals will be forced to become "the guardians of morality", determining the mental state of individuals on the basis of their own social and moral viewpoint. Members of the committee will call on Jacqui Smith, the Health minister, to rewrite sections of the Mental Health Bill, claiming that it breaches existing human rights laws.

The report is expected to cause further embarrassment to the Government which has already been forced to draw up plans to refer the controversial Bill to a special standing committee, set up to deal with complicated or troublesome Bills, before it is formally debated by MPs.

This week, the mental health charity Mind will demand that ministers allow the mentally ill greater influence over the treatment they receive. At its annual conference in Cardiff, the charity will call on the Government to increase the number of health professionals employed to represent the rights of the mentally ill.

Another example of poor provision for the mentally ill has emerged with the case of Christopher Edwards, who was beaten to death in a prison cell. He was so badly battered he could be identified only by his dental records. Mr Edwards, who suffered from a mild form of schizophrenia, should never have died. But he would still be alive today if Britain's mental health system had not failed him.

His mother, Audrey Edwards, says: "The fact he was mentally ill was a barrier, although he never lost his sweet personality. But that is nothing compared with losing your son for ever because he is murdered."

Eight years ago at the age of 30, Mr Edwards was found dead at Chelmsford prison where he was being held for a minor public order offence.

His killer was Richard Linford, a paranoid schizophrenic who was placed in the cell with Mr Edwards, despite warnings that Linford was a risk to other people.

Within hours of being locked up, Mr Edwards, a gifted mathematician, was dead.

Since their son's death, Mrs Edwards and her husband Paul have campaigned to expose the truth about his treatment by the police, the Prison Service and health officials.

Next week, the Edwards family will publish their account of this struggle in a book entitled No Truth, No Justice, which reveals how the rights of the mentally ill are ignored.

Mrs Edwards said these rights were now under threat from mental health reforms proposed by the Government.

"Mental health care is an issue which has to be approached very carefully," said Mrs Edwards, who lives in Coggeshall, near Colchester.

"I know there was the case with Michael Stone [killer of Lin and Megan Russell], but there will be a lot of vulnerable people who are quite harmless and not a danger who will be caught up in these new laws. People should not be criminalised for something that can be rectified."

Mrs Edwards believes the mentally ill should be properly assessed before they are treated. "More and more mentally ill people are entering the criminal justice system and staying in prison without treatment," she said.

"If they put money into hospitals, and not more prisons, then the 5,500 severely mentally ill people would be getting the help they need."

Mr Edwards was not fully diagnosed with a mental illness but his family believe he had mild schizophrenia. He was a talented man who played chess at tournament level and taught himself Russian and French.

Then mental illness began to distort his behaviour. He was arrested for asking two women if he could go home with them, and instead of being sent to a secure unit Mr Edwards was placed in a prison cell with Richard Linford.

With the help of Liberty, the civil rights charity, Mr and Mrs Edwards won a landmark case which is expected to transform the way Britain's criminal justice system treats the mentally ill. In March, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that the Government had denied Mr Edwards the right to life and that the authorities had committed serious errors of judgement.

But Mrs Edwards is angry that government officials have so far failed to address the failings that led to her son's death. In contrast, she feels no animosity towards her son's killer who is being treated in Rampton high-security hospital.

"Right from the very first day we had no animosity towards Richard," Mrs Edwards said. "He was deprived of the treatment he should have had – he was a victim. If people will accept that mental disorders are an illness, then the stigma will be removed."