Michael Stone (murderer) - Trial and Consequences

Trial and Consequences

The crime received a great deal of publicity and in July 1997 police arrested and charged thirty-seven-year-old Michael Stone with the crimes. Stone pleaded not guilty at his original trial in 1998 but was convicted on the strength of testimony from a witness who claimed that he had confessed to them while in jail. He was sentenced to life imprisonment.

It was later determined that Stone had previous convictions and had been diagnosed as a psychopath, and in the light of his conviction the Labour government suggested a plan to reform the Mental Health Act 1983. Their proposal sought to reform the 1983 MHA's "treatability test," which stated that only patients whose mental disorders were considered treatable could be detained. Because certain types of personality disorder are not considered treatable, patients with these conditions, including Michael Stone, could not be detained. In response to the Michael Stone case and other widely publicised reports of mentally ill people committing atrocious crimes, the government wanted to allow those diagnosed with schizophrenia or personality disorders with a tendency towards violence to be detained against their will in mental health hospitals without having actually committed a crime. The reforms, ultimately enacted in 2007, changed the "treatability test" into an "appropriate medical treatment test." Under this new test, patients can be detained against their wishes as long as there is a medical treatment available to them that can alleviate or prevent the worsening of the disorder or one or more of its symptoms. There is no longer a requirement that treatments actually work, nor is there a requirement that patients participate in the treatment (ex: with talking therapies and other therapies that require active participation by the patient), merely that the treatment is considered appropriate, and is readily available to the patient.