NSW:Killer of father, sister was mentally ill

AAP General News (Australia)
04-19-2011
NSW:Killer of father, sister was mentally ill

By Margaret Scheikowski

SYDNEY, April 19 AAP - After years of fearing Anthony Waterlow and trying to get him
psychiatric help, his sister and father died at his hands during a frenzied knife attack.

On Tuesday, a judge found him not guilty of their murders by reason of mental illness,
noting Waterlow had steadfastly resisted treatment and refused to take anti-psychotic
medication.

"Therein lies this tragedy," said Justice Peter Hidden in the NSW Supreme Court.

But film director Jane Campion later called for a review of the law, saying Nick Waterlow,
68, and Chloe Heuston, 36, died because there was no protection for them from mental health
services or the police.

Nick Waterlow's partner, Juliet Darling, echoed her calls for urgent changes, saying
"this tragedy was avoidable".

Both women said the Mental Health Act did not enable doctors to schedule - or detain
as an involuntary psychiatric patient - a mentally ill person, despite their repeatedly
threatening people's lives while refusing to take medication.

"For 10 years Nick tried everything he could to protect his family and to help his
son Anthony while in fear of his life," Ms Darling said in a statement sent to AAP.

"Many other families with a mentally ill member are now struggling with the system
failure, afraid for their lives, afraid for the lives of others and for the mentally ill
person."

Justice Hidden found Waterlow, 44, of Stanmore, was suffering from paranoid schizophrenia
at the time and did not know that what he was doing was wrong.

He found him not guilty of murdering his sister and their art curator father at her
Randwick home in Sydney in November 2009.

He also acquitted him of recklessly causing grievous bodily harm to a young girl, who
cannot be named for legal reasons.

Waterlow will be detained at a facility to be determined by the Mental Health Review
Tribunal until, and if, he is deemed not to be a danger to the community.

The judge referred to psychiatric evidence of Waterlow's delusions and his belief that
his family was behind a ten-year internet harassment campaign aimed at destroying his
reputation.

Waterlow felt "his family had devised a game of harassment that would eventually lead
to his death and everyone could play to try and make him commit suicide".

He was assessed by psychiatrists a number of times over the years due to concerns held
by family and friends.

"There is evidence of his paranoid thinking over the years leading up to the offences,
together with behaviour on his part which was variously bizarre, aggressive, threatening
or intimidating," the judge said.

"This was directed to his father, sister and brother, to some of his friends and acquaintances,
and on occasions to strangers."

More than once consideration was given to detaining him as an involuntary patient,
but that action was never taken, the judge said.

He noted Waterlow had received appropriate treatment since his arrest, had demonstrated
insight into his illness and expressed genuine remorse.

But surviving family members have expressed fears for their safety should Waterlow
be released and cease taking his medication.

"That fear, of course, is entirely understandable," he said, adding he would not comment on it.

"It is within the province and expertise of the Mental Health Review Tribunal, whose
task it will be to monitor the accused's progress."

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KEYWORD: WATERLOW WRAP (PIX AVAILABLE)

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