M I C A	Jowell killed the companion of the mother of his pregnant girl friend. It seems, impulsively, without sufficient explanation even in hindsight It had been thought his adoptive mother might be at risk He was adopted, told so by the adopting parents 'when he was able to understand'. He was always in trouble at school and achieved no foundation for adult life. It may be that two foster children arriving in the house after him, upset him in some way. He stayed in the house of the girlfriend when she became pregnant. Probation Department seem to have been the lead organisation. Any other contact was never kept or was soon broken off. Magistrates had asked for a psychiatric Report, not completed because he did not keep appointments. There was an intention to hold a risk appraisal meeting of all concerned parties. But the tragedy came first. Towell would never be held to any programme without an enforceable compulsion. Nobody wants the obligation to try to treat this kind of abnormal personality without segregation in closed surroundings. The obligation remains, to warn any one who is taken in, of the clear history of broken undertakings and unsustained relationships of all kinds. He was likely to be violent when with alcohol or street drugs - as he often was. The Scotland mental health Act, and maybe the new - will it ever come - english one, will give the opportunity for enforced attention to structured interventions; for those with personality disorder, whose behaviour threatens others; or those whose alcohol or other addiction prevents them making undertakings that they cannot keep. Go to Comment Armstrong; Towell back to Inquiry links

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