Words No Longer Mean What They Used To…

And there’s no better example than this:

A convicted rapist was allowed to walk out of a secure hospital unit because his carers were not authorised to stop him physically, a court was told yesterday.

In what way, then, was it a ‘secure’ hospital unit?

O’Keefe, who was sentenced to life in prison in 1996 for rape and robbery, appeared yesterday before Inner London Crown Court to plead guilty to one count of escaping custody.

Jailing him for 18 months, Judge Simon Davies said: “Escaping from prison or escaping in the circumstances you found yourself in is a very serious offence and it must attract a substantial sentence of imprisonment.

Anyone think 18 months for a lifer who escaped is ‘substantial’? Nope, me neither…

The court was told that O’Keefe had been jailed originally for raping and robbing his girlfriend and then tying her to a radiator with electric wire.

He had a personality disorder diagnosed and was held in a secure unit in Lambeth Hospital, South London. In February he complained of chest pains and was taken to King’s College Hospital.

So, he’s dangerous enough to demand his detention in a secure unit – until he complains of a medical problem, then he’s promptly accompanied to a public hospital by nurses whose only recourse in the event of an escape attempt is to say ‘Please don’t, there’s a good chap’…?

Oh, well, it’s not as though he’s committed any crimes while at large, is it?

During the time that he was missing, O’Keefe became a suspect in the murder of David Kemp, 73, in his flat in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, on March 12. He was subsequently interviewed twice by police after evidence was found linking him to the scene.

Detectives in Norfolk are still waiting for prosecutors to decide if there is enough evidence to charge O’Keefe, and Mr Kemp’s death was not mentioned in court yesterday. But Judge Davies said that O’Keefe was a dangerous man and a risk to the public.

Unless he has chest pains again, that is…