Madam, - Your Legal Correspondent, Carol Coulter (April 3rd), has rightly raised the inadequacy of psychiatric services for disturbed young people.
In this case one innocent young man is dead, murdered by another young man described as deeply disturbed. The murderer has been sentenced to life imprisonment. I cannot imagine the grief of the bereaved parents and my heart goes out to them.
But life imprisonment cannot be correct for one who suffers with ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder). This medical condition of brain dysfunction with its associated serious problems with inhibiting inappropriate behaviour and controling impulses needs medical, psychiatric treatment, not jail for life.
It is often found that a person who suffers with ADHD may suffer with others conditions, viz., hyperkenesis, dyslexia, Asperger's Syndrome,anxiety, depression. This comorbidity is being increasingly recognised and a sentence of life imprisonment cannot be neither humane nor just.
There is so much loss in this tragic case and our seriously inadequate psychiatric services for disturbed young people must be addressed as a matter of urgency. - Yours, etc.,
ANTHONY J. BUTLER SMA, SMA House, Blackrock Road, Cork.