Magistrate rejects call for re-examination of woman released from Mt Carmel Hospital

Magistrate Miriam Hayman this morning gave a dressing down to two lawyers from the Attorney General's Office who asked for a woman charged under the Terrorism Act to be detained at Mount Carmel Hospital despite her being given the all clear by psychiatrists. The woman, whose particulars cannot be published by court order, was charged seven years ago with making a threat in terms of the Terrorism Act. She spent a considerable time at Mount Carmel Hospital under care and recovered. She was only recently released after her lawyer, Giannella De Marco, filed a Constitutional case arguing that once her client had been deemed fit to be released she should not be kept at the hospital any longer. The court found that her rights had been breached and the woman was released. In the court sitting today, Dr David Cassar, consultant psychiatrist at Mount Carmel hospital, testified that when she committed the crime, the woman was under complete psychosis but she  has since made a recovery. Magistrate Miriam Hayman threw out the request by the AG's office for the woman to be re-examined by other experts. The Magistrate told them that she was not going to shoulder the responsibility of having the...