I have carried out hundreds of assessments in cases of claims related to compensation for physical, emotional, sexual or racial abuse, physical or sexual assault, or neglect (which may have occurred either in childhood or in adulthood), with the legal actions being against both individuals and organisations. The defendants have included football clubs, the Scout Association, churches and religious bodies, private schools, Local Authorities, the fire brigade, the military, sports training bodies, leisure centres, hospitality venues, private clinics and other commercial organisations. I do over fifty such assessments per year at present. I have given oral evidence in court on a number of these cases.
I am one of the panel of psychiatric experts providing jointly instructed psychiatric assessments in compensation claims to the Redress Schemes for Lambeth Council and for Manchester City Football Club.
CAPACITY ASSESSMEMTS
I have undergone training on the Mental Capacity Act 2005 and carry out a number of assessments a year under this Act, including regarding capacity to consent to treatment, to conduct litigation and/or to manage any compensation payments which may result.
CLINICAL NEGLIGENCE
I have carried out hundreds of assessments in clinical and professional negligence cases, against individual clinicians, NHS Trusts, and private care providers, including complex clinical and multi-track high-value negligence cases. I have also been instructed in a number of cases involving secondary victim claims.
These are both cases where there is a claim for psychiatric injury as the result of allegedly negligent treatment of a physical health condition, and also cases where negligent treatment by mental health care providers has been alleged or admitted (including suicide and homicide cases).
I am instructed both by Claimant solicitors and by solicitors acting for NHS Resolution, in about equal measure.
MBBCh (University of the Witwatersrand) 1986, MRCPsych (London) 1993
LLM in Legal Aspects of Medical Practice (University of Wales) 2000
Certificate of Completion of Specialist Training in Forensic Psychiatry 1997. Up to date with CPD requirements of Royal Collage of Psychiatrists and with Appraisal and GMC Revalidation.
Approved as an Approved Clinician under the Mental Health Act 1983 by the London Region Panel under authority delegated by the Secretary of State for Health
Winston Churchill Memorial Trust Fellow 2001, Member of the Expert Witness Institute, Registered as a data controller by the Information Commissioner’s Office
Consultant Forensic Psychiatrist Masters in Law MBBch LLM MRCPsych
Over the past twenty-five years I have prepared reports, advised probation officers, courts, solicitors and counsel and given written and oral evidence in thousands of cases in many different courts including Magistrate’s Courts, Family Courts, Crown Courts, civil courts, County Court, the Appeal Court, Coroner’s Court and the Jersey Court, as well as Mental Health Review Tribunals, fitness to practice hearings and employment tribunals. Types of cases in which I have prepared reports or given evidence include:
Wide variety of criminal offences.
Decisions about the imposition of restriction orders.
Parenting, child protection and custody issues.
Fitness to plead and insanity, issues related to intent.
Drug-related offences.
Coroner’s inquests.
Voir dire and evidence admissibility issues.
GMC and RCVS fitness to practice cases.
Employment cases.
Immigration/deportation cases including Human Rights issues
Capacity assessments.
Personal injury cases including those involving compensation for psychiatric disability following physical or sexual abuse or assault.
Cases involving compensation for psychiatric disability following medical or clinical negligence.
“Nervous shock” (secondary victim) cases
Diagnoses and problems of the patients in these cases have included:
Schizophrenia and the other major mental illnesses, including affective disorders.
Personality disorders.
Substance misuse and dependence.
Autistic spectrum disorders.
Obsessive-compulsive disorder.
Anxiety disorders
Temporal lobe and other forms of epilepsy, and other organic brain conditions..
Mental retardation, organic brain syndromes, head injuries.
Sexual perversions including paedophilia, sadism and bestiality.
Sexual dysfunction.
Disorders of impulse control.
Psychosomatic and somatisation conditions.
Dissociative disorders, Munchausen syndrome and malingering.
Adjustment and acute stress disorders.
Post-traumatic stress disorder, including complex PTSD and delayed-onset PTSD.
SPECIFIC AREAS OF EXPERTISE
CLINICAL NEGLIGENCE
I have carried out hundreds of assessments in clinical and professional negligence cases, against individual clinicians, NHS Trusts, and private care providers, including complex clinical and multi-track high-value negligence cases. I have also been instructed in a number of cases involving secondary victim claims.
These are both cases where there is a claim for psychiatric injury as the result of allegedly negligent treatment of a physical health condition, and also cases where negligent treatment by mental health care providers has been alleged or admitted (including suicide and homicide cases).
I am instructed both by Claimant solicitors and by solicitors acting for NHS Resolution, in about equal measure.
ABUSE/ASSAULT COMPENSATION CASES
I have carried out hundreds of assessments in cases of claims related to compensation for physical, emotional, sexual or racial abuse, physical or sexual assault, or neglect (which may have occurred either in childhood or in adulthood), with the legal actions being against both individuals and organisations. The defendants have included football clubs, the Scout Association, churches and religious bodies, private schools, Local Authorities, the fire brigade, the military, sports training bodies, leisure centres, hospitality venues, private clinics and other commercial organisations. I do over fifty such assessments per year at present. I have given oral evidence in court on a number of these cases.
