BMHUK Magazine | October/November 2011 www.blackmentalhealth.org.uk


Deaths in custody: Untold stories of those left behind


With the focus on the systemic failures and need for policy changes dominating discussions following any death in custody, the human side of the legacy left by such tragedies often remain untold.


T


he death of service user, Orville Blackwood in 1991, not only made front page news but also brought about a public inquiry, the findings


of which were published in the questionably entitled ‘Big Black and Dangerous?’ report in 1993.


This document laid out 47 recommendations, to ensure such tragedies did not happen again, detailed the inquiries into the death of Blackwood and two other African Caribbean patients. Michael Martin and Joseph Watts also lost their lives after they were placed in seclusion having been injected with large amounts of psychotropic medication, while detained at Broadmoor high secure hospital. With this year marking the twentieth anniversary of this tragedy.


‘The Solution magazine speaks to Nathan John, Orville Blackwood’s son on the human legacy of this case.


John is clear, that the absence of his father left an impression from an early age. ‘I remember going to school and whenever there were special events like plays the other children would bring their dads. I asked my mum where my dad was and she said that he was in hospital. I asked if I could go and visit him, but my mum said not now and it was kind of left like that. It must have been only a few months later that he died. I was seven at the time; it was just before my eighth birthday,’ John said.


06


by Staff writer


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24