It’s no secret that I’m not a parent. Partially because the one person I’ve met who I eventually thought could handle the crazy of little Oz’s vanished on me, but also because I don’t think I’m ready.
If I was to become a father in the near future though I’d like to think I’d exhibit a certain degree of responsibility towards my children. For example, what they eat, who they play with, the environment they live in and who’s watching them.
Take note of that last one. For some parents apparently who looks after your children doesn’t matter. If you’re available to babysit, come on down.
Well it turns out who babysits your children is more important then some parents would like to think. This is a lesson one mother from Campsie, in Sydney’s southwest unfortunately learnt the hard way.
Jayant Kumar Singh was being held in a mental health facility until late 2006. For whatever reason Singh was then released and a short time later found himself babysitting three young children. One of which was a baby.
Despite having ‘never shown any aggression towards them and had a good relationship with the baby‘ Singh then decided to try some unconventional disciplinary methods and proceeded to ‘hit (the) baby with a crutch before almost cutting her head off with a meat cleaver‘.
Singh did this to the baby girl infront of her two other siblings.
A post-mortem report revealed the baby had brain injuries and extensive fractures to her skull, and her neck had been cut deeply with “near decapitation.
Not guilty via means of mental illness.
Not a fan of the ‘mental illness defence’ normally this kind of sentence would leave a bitter taste in my mouth. In this particular case however Singh appears to actually have had a prior history of mental illness. The article doesn’t specify what he suffered from but whatever it was it was severe enough for him to be committed to a loony bin.
How or under what circumstances Singh was released though remains a mystery. Either the process by which mentally ill people are assessed for released massively failed, or Singh convinced his captors he was healthy enough to rejoin society when he wasn’t, in which case the process by which mentally ill people are assessed for release still massively failed.
What’s worrying is that this very process is again being used to hold Singh until he is deemed fit for release again. Although Justice Robert Shadbolt Hulme found Singh not guilty, he did sentence him to ‘to be detained in a prison hospital at Sydney’s Long Bay Jail “until released by due process of the law”.‘
This very due process which seems to have failed before just needs to eventually fail again and Jayant Singh gets to walk the streets a free man without any prior conviction.
It’d be like the murder of the baby girl never happened.
I’ve long since held the view that by all means sentence mentally ill people to mental institutions or whatever but sentence them punishment wise in the same manner a non-mentally ill person would be sentenced.
By not recording a conviction against Singh the legal system isn’t doing society any favours. Sure a custodial sentence under these circumstances might be for a very long time but eventually if and when Singh is released is it in any way fair he can carry on his life like the murder never happened?
Worse still perhaps one day engage in employment around children whose parents are completely oblivious to Singh’s past?
The cynic in me can’t help but wonder if Singh’s release could possibly have been due to over crowding at the facility he was being held at. Given he appears to have no prior history of violence against children I’m left pondering the thought if Singh’s actions might have been a physical plea to be let back into the ‘system’.
It’s no secret mental health is pretty underfunded in Australia.
Whatever the reason though sadly a mother has had to learn the hard way that who babysits your children matters. Whether the mother knew of Singh’s mental problems or not remains unclear.
If she didn’t know then if I was her I’d seriously be considering legal action against the instituion that certified Singh fit for release.
If she did know well let that be a lesson to all the other lazy parents out there. Pay attention to who’s around your kids.
It should go without saying but letting mentally ill people watch your kids probably isn’t the smartest idea in the world. One minute they’re sitting in the corner drooling like an invalid and the next they’re trying to hack off your baby girls head with a meat cleaver.