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Schizophrenic 'freed' to kill his father
Ben Bailey10.08.09
A dangerous schizophrenic was freed on home leave from a psychiatric unit to kill his father in a case described as a "disgrace" by his sister today.
Omar Parada Blanco was let out of hospital despite being assessed by doctors as posing a risk to others just weeks before, the Old Bailey heard.
He had been admitted 11 times since his illness was first diagnosed in 1998, as a result of threats to his family or attacks on members of the public.
But, after receiving treatment, he was repeatedly let out, on the last occasion in December 2007 to celebrate New Year with his father Enrique Parada Castro.
Days later Mr Parada Castro was found dead by members of his family having been bludgeoned to death with a vacuum cleaner pipe.
The 58-year-old Chilean exile and Spanish teacher was left with such severe injuries that police at first thought he had been shot.
His son later told doctors that he did it after his father made comments about his low-slung jeans that showed "disrespect to all rappers".
The 32-year-old, of Cricklewood, north west London, was detained indefinitely today under mental health legislation after he admitted manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.
Outside court, his sister Victoria Parada Blanco angrily criticised the way his case had been handled by doctors at the Park Royal centre for mental health in north west London.
She said: "Their behaviour in the past has been awful and they need to really sort out the hospital because it is an absolute disgrace.
"They didn't care. I think he had been neglected and not treated as an individual, he was just classed as a paranoid schizophrenic."
Mr Parada Castro, who had been a student leader in Chile and fled to Britain in the 1970s, was
head of modern languages at Hackney College.
His son had begun to behave "erratically" from the age of 12 although he had at first shown signs of becoming a "highly intelligent young man", the court heard.
But he started to become abusive and violent towards his father and sister and was first admitted to Park Royal and diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia in April 1998.
It started a pattern of being treated in hospital where he appeared to show signs of improvement, before being discharged, failing to take his medication, and launching unprovoked assaults on strangers.
The court heard that he made his condition worse by regularly taking cannabis and on occasions cocaine.
David Jeremy QC, prosecuting, said: "He simply couldn't contain his anger."
On November 9, 2007 he went to hospital with a cut to his arm after smashing the television when he thought he heard voices coming from it, and he was sent back to Park Royal.
Mr Jeremy said: "It was considered that he posed a significant risk to others. His condition was unstable and at times threatening."
However, he was let out overnight for Christmas and then for a week over New Year.
Parada Blanco travelled with his father to Cambridge to stay with a family friend but became "agitated" and they returned to the family home in Kingsbury on New Year's Day.
He went back to his own flat to collect a vacuum cleaner pipe before returning to his father's home to bludgeon him to death and steal his laptop, later returning to hospital as if nothing had happened.
The killer's mother was in Chile and his sister in Ireland with her boyfriend and the body was not discovered until they returned a few days later.
"There they found the body with severe head injuries and his own blood sprayed and pooled around his body," said Mr Jeremy.
"The severity of the injuries was so great that the police suspected that he had been shot in the face. His face appeared to have been completely obliterated."
After being arrested Parada Blanco at first denied any involvement in his father's death but later confessed to doctors.
"He claimed this was something he felt he had to do, brought on by the fact that his father had spoken to him in a horrible way by telling him to pull up his jeans which he wore at half-mast.
"By this he claimed he had shown disrespect to him and all rappers."
The victim suffered massive injuries to his head, including multiple skull fractures and a laceration of the brain.
Judge Stephen Kramer said Parada Blanco posed a "serious threat" to his family and members of the public as he ordered him to be detained indefinitely under high security in Broadmoor.
He added: "There has been a history of improvement whilst on medication as an inpatient followed by non-compliance and relapses whilst in the community."
Reader views (3)
I'm sure he was fine as long as he took his medication.
- Trunk, US
Care in the Community is a brilliant idea. In practice. In theory it simply does not work. We hear far too many cases of mental health patients that have been so badly let down that fatalities have ensued; either they have killed themselves or someone else.
A friend of mine's wife has serious mental health problems (exacerbated by her GPs over medication of anti-depressants and diazepam). While he is defending himself and calling 999 with one hand and trying to stop his wife from killing herself with the other, the local Mental Health Trust sit on theirs and tell him that it "is a problem with behaviour, not mental health". Anyone that can harm herself and those around her the way she has needs help, as does he in dealing with it all. I honestly believe they are waiting until she kills herself or my friend so that they can wash their hands of it all.
- Imogen, Ipswich, Suffolk
Welcome to the reality of 'care in the commumity'.
All those hospitals sold off for luxury housing....this is part of the hidden cost.
- Jimfred, London Uk
