If Mental Hospitals Were Zoos, They'd Be Shut Down...

I often save images to use later, and, coming across these while cleaning out my photo images, I wondered what had become of the case, as the conclusion must have sneaked under my radar:

And a quick Google later:

A crazed woman stabbed to death a stranger walking his dog in a park after repeatedly 'escaping' from mental health units, it can be revealed. Artist Emma Borowy, 32, was said to be a schizophrenic obsessed with witchcraft. She had previously been arrested for slaughtering two pet goats in a form of 'sacrifice' and allegedly threatened to 'stab someone in the heart' just three weeks before killing Roger Leadbeater, 74.

The case will now never go to trial as she died a week ago in a 'suspected suicide' in New Hall Prison in Wakefield, West Yorkshire.

So no justice for the family of her victim, not that there's likely to have been any if it had gone to trial.  

Passing the case on to the coroner, Judge Richardson said: 'This case, taken as a whole, in almost every dimension is sad beyond compare.'

Details of Borowy's troubling previous behaviour and the fact she was regarded as a 'danger' can now be revealed for the first time as legal restrictions are lifted. Her father Karl, 64, said Borowy, who had a young son, had been admitted to mental health units in Warrington, Salford and Bolton, but had frequently walked out.

He said: 'It seems she can escape any time she wants. That's what she told my wife. I do think these units should be more secure. She must have escaped a dozen times in the past two years.'

Imagine a zoo where lions, tigers and bears regularly escaped and mauled people to death. It would be unthinkable, wouldn't it? They'd never get a licence to operate. How, then, can mental health facilities get away with it?

Borowy was also said to be responsible for the 'ritual' slaughter of two goats in October last year. The animals belonged to a local family. They were stolen and found later with 'broken bones and cut throats.'

Owner Emma McLeod, 39, said Borowy was arrested but never prosecuted. She said: 'We said at the time that if she can kill animals then she can kill a human. She terrorised another farm before us, she used to sit in the trees and pretend she was a bird. But she was never charged over the goats. They just blamed her mental health.'

That gets them off the hook all the time.