Media Release: July 12, 2018
“The repeated failure of NSW Health to supply evidence justifying the forced injection of Malcolm Baker caused an adjournment of the case. The Mental Health Review Tribunal ordered them to provide us with the documents”. A photo and full report of this latest news is available here.
“Two days before the hearing Justice Health psychiatrists forcibly injected him with double the previous dose of paliperidone. This was despite requests to await the decision of the Tribunal. Malcolm gave evidence of the medication’s side effects, included dribbling, difficulty in speaking, memory loss, dizzy spells, high temperature, increased anger, agitation and anxiety. He said it made him sick and asked to be left alone.”
“Malcolm is a non-violent prisoner who has not harmed anyone or himself during his twenty-six years of imprisonment. He had immediately taken responsibility for his actions after a fit of jealous rage 26 years ago”. See Malcolm’s full profile here.
“Two earlier hearings in February and April of 2018 had resulted in orders that lasted respectively 2 and 3 months. During each period, Mr Baker was relocated to Long Bay Prison to be forcibly injected. On neither occasion was it justified by anything he had done, but the orders were too short for a Supreme Court challenge. On three previous occasions in 2012, 2015 and 2016 the Tribunal refused to give Justice Health the order it asked for, after Justice Action defended him”.
“We presented to the Tribunal Malcolm’s Personal Management Plan which had been created by him and his family, as a positive alternative to the forced Treatment Plan. He asked to be held in a safe area, as well as have access to education and work”.
“This behavior by the Health Department is part of the same mental health culture exposed with Miriam Merten and described officially as ‘lacking compassion and humanity’. It is ongoing torture of an isolated elderly man, and we intend to stop it”.