A young man armed himself with a knife and attacked without warning a number of people, one of whom

- an American lady due to fly home the foillowing day - died as a result.  Following defence claims of

his mental condition - allegedly suffering a psychotic condition affecting his actions, the CPS

proceeded on a charge of manslaughter, plus the wounding of the other victims.

The CPS spokesman appeared on TV to justify the decision (rather than a charge of murder), with

the medical opinions and their various descriptions of the man's condition given full rein and weight.

Interesting then, that his condition persuaded him to clothe himself, arm himself, and take to the

streets to attack his victims without any apparent provocation or warning; OR that having acted

as he did, saw the approaching police officers and had the mental wherewithal to run away from

them, resisting calls from the pursuing officers until he was forcibly detained.  So...his mental

condition seemed clear enough to tell him "You've done wrong, here come the police, so run!" -

which he did.

Which leaves the abiding question:  how to assess the mental decision to arm yourself with a

deadly weapon, go out into the public streets and use that weapon to deliberately attack

innocent persons unknown to you, yet persuades you to leg it guiltily when the police appear.

It occurs to me that something about knowing wrong from right is in there somewhere and medical

folk may not always be 100% in their "expert opinion" when judging how and why a person

acted as they did.at any given time.

Evil and warped/malicious thoughts aren't always explained by medical jargon or its interpretation

to suit medical presumptions of human behaviour.  Let's not be too comforted by the use of

their psychological suppositions to think that this act of evil was not worked out and carried

out with the necessary degree of intent and commitment - even to the immediate and clearly

committed act of trying to escape.  Surely a really sick person would never have known what

was done was "wrong" let alone unlawful to the extent of having to explain behaviour to anyone,

including the police? 

Be careful out there!

G'night all.