<b>Mental Health:</b> MPs demand inquiry into the death of schizophrenic after struggle with police

Mental health charities and MPs are calling for an immediate government inquiry into the death of a schizophrenic man who suffered fatal brain damage during a struggle with police.

After more than a year in a coma, Glenn Howard died, aged 47, on New Year's Day 1999. He went missing from a psychiatric ward because he was worried his pet fish had not been fed.

His family has spent more than four and a half years battling to get to the truth of what exactly happened to Mr Howard, who used to play guitar in a band and write his own music.

"The fact Glenn is not around any more is too much to cope with," said his brother Barry. "Seeing him in that state [in a coma], it was soul destroying. I went to see him every day but it was harrowing. I've still got all his instruments and possessions – I can't bear to part with them. It's taken so long for any of the truth to be heard."

A police officer has already been found guilty of neglect of care to the musician who suffered a heart attack and choked on his vomit after being struck with a truncheon and held in a bear-hug.

In a special parliamentary debate, the Liberal Democrat MP Tom Brake will tomorrow demand a full investigation into Mr Howard's treatment at the hands of police. He will claim that officers have still not accounted for their actions during six crucial minutes of Mr Howard's life before he slipped into a coma.

"There is a desperate need for training for people who deal with those with mental health problems," Mr Brake said. "There is a clear need for protocols to be put in place."

Mr Howard went missing from a psychiatric ward in December 1997. A schizophrenic since the age of 20, he had been sectioned to the Chiltern wing of Sutton Hospital in Surrey after he refused to take drugs to stabilise his condition.

But Mr Howard's relatives say he had never been violent and staff were not too worried when they discovered him missing. Two officers were called out to Mr Howard's flat where, his family was told, there was a "struggle".

Another nine police went to the scene. At some point Mr Howard was held face down using restraint techniques, his heart stopped and his brain starved of oxygen. A police van transported him to Sutton police station and he was then taken to St Helier hospital in Carshalton.

A policeman was still straddling Mr Howard's body when he was delivered to hospital. His heart was restarted but he was in a coma for a year before dying. A verdict of accidental death was recorded.

The Police Complaints Authority questioned five Metropolitan police officers who were involved in Mr Howard's arrest. One officer has since been disciplined and transferred to another force.

New protocols are to be introduced this year to ensure that appropriate medical or social services staff take the lead in dealing with absconded psychiatric patients.

However, Mr Howard's brother Barry told The Independent on Sunday that a public inquiry was also vital to highlight the plight of the mentally ill whom, he said, were treated like "criminals".

"Glenn's case demonstrates the tragedy that can result from fear, ignorance and stigma," said Mr Howard, who is backed by the National Schizophrenic Fellowship. "My brother used to say 'how can you be arrested for what you are thinking?'."

He added that he was worried about the impact of the Government's new mental health reforms. "The biggest danger is that people think they will be locked away for feeling depressed and will avoid going to their doctor," he said. "The fear is that this will lead to more deaths in custody."

The forgotten

By Jonathan Thompson

"Adrian" was 14 and a half years old when he was first detained under the Mental Health Act. Caught setting fire to some shrubland, he was sent to Ashworth, one of Britain's three high-security mental hospitals.

Today – 32 years later – he is still languishing there. The only criminal charges he has ever faced are for two counts of arson and one of theft.

Under the current system, patients being held under the Mental Health Act are entitled to have their case reviewed once a year. Adrian has used that right no fewer than nine times in the past 11 years. On each occasion, the experts have recommended that he be transferred to a medium-security unit, and yet, somehow, he remains trapped at Ashworth in Merseyside.

Adrian, who is now approaching his 47th birthday, has been diagnosed with a psychopathic personality disorder – a condition which is not officially classified as a mental illness. For decades, his lawyers have been fighting to have him moved to a regional secure unit where his treatment would be more effective, but a combination of apathy, red tape and indecision from the authorities has seen his status change very little.

As early as 1992, Adrian's mental health review stated: "It is becoming something of a scandal that after all these years this patient is still in a special hospital: particularly as it is probable that he has never been mentally ill at all."

This sentiment was repeated again and again in consecutive reviews. Last year, Adrian's report stated simply: "Detention in maximum security is not necessary."

Adrian was refused permission to talk to The Independent on Sunday directly. But speaking through his lawyer, he said: "It's terrible. It's a wasted life in special hospitals. You hear all this stuff about human rights, but I think that to be kept here is inhumane. These hospitals are a law unto themselves."

Adrian was briefly transferred to a less secure unit twice the mid-1990s, but was soon sent back to Ashworth. His lawyer maintains Adrian struggled to adjust to life outside the locked ward he had grown up in because of inadequate support.

The lawyer, who has to remain anonymous to protect Adrian's identity, spoke of her frustration with the way her client has been treated.

"Part of the problem is that if you leave people in institutions too long they become institutionalised," she said. "It's like gate fever. They sort of get lost and abandoned in the system, and after a while they can't cope with life outside the hospital.

"With this particular case, I don't think that he ever needed maximum security in the first place, but he got kind of stuck there. Now he is so institutionalised that he doesn't know anything else."

Adrian has been promised another move, but has to wait for Home Office clearance before he can get on the waiting list for a bed elsewhere. The immediate future looks bleak.