Glaister Earl Butler's world from 1979 became a downward spiral into mental illness. Emma Pinch reports on the events which culminated in him killing Detective Constable Michael Swindell...

Glaister Earl Butler seemed destined for a successful career after joining Rolls-Royce as the company?s first black graduate trainee in 1979.

But after the Jamaican-born mechanical engineering graduate was made redundant from his job as a design draughtsman in 1982 and found it difficult to get work, his mental state began to deteriorate.

He first came to the attention of social services in Stafford in 1992 when they were told he had been living without electricity in his flat for the previous two years. It was later found he did not have a cooker or a fridge either.

But although those interviewing him found him ?a little odd?, they felt no intervention was required.

Two years later, however, Butler kicked a neighbour in the head in an unprovoked attack. While that offence was being investigated, others living nearby told police he had been abusive and aggressive towards them.

They said he could often be heard shouting to himself: ?They?re coming to get me, they?re persecuting me.?

When police forced entry to the property to detain him under the Mental Health Act, he jumped from a first floor window in a bid to escape.

Butler was eventually caught and held between March 1994 and March 1995.

His behaviour before subsequent detentions was similar, with a consultant psychiatrist, Dr James Collins, from Ashworth high security hospital, stating there were ?clear parallels? with his actions in the run-up to Detective Constable Michael Swindells?s death.

Not only was there another unprovoked attack but Butler was aggressive and both hostile to, and suspicious of, those living nearby. He was also apparently responding to hallucinations.

Butler?s medical notes, which were read to the court, detailed the extent of his paranoia: he believed he was the victim of a conspiracy by MI5, the police and the authorities, including health workers and white people.

The police, he asserted, were responsible for his redundancy and continued to persecute him.

Being confronted by a number of police officers on May 21 2004 was likely to have ?tipped him over the edge?, one doctor believed.

His delusions, plus so-called ?negative symptoms? of paranoid schizophrenia, like social isolation, lack of drive, seeming ?vacant? or staring into space, appeared more acute before his second and third detentions.

In August 1999, he was ?sectioned? for six months after throwing a brick through a neighbour?s window. He claimed the neighbours worked for Special Branch, and that MI5 wanted to kill him and steal his computer programmes.

In December 1999, he twice phoned the Jamaican High Commission in London to say he was being held against his will by the Home Office and hospital staff.

His third detention, in April 2001 followed a period when the outreach team from Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health Trust had trouble contacting him.

Again, there were reports he had been aggressive and abusive to neighbours and there were fears he was not taking his medication. Just weeks before being taken into hospital, on March 13 2001, he burned down his flat.

The court heard that during his stays in hospital, he was often hostile and both verbally and physically violent towards staff and other patients.

He also refused to accept he had a mental illness and did not take his medication regularly.

After being charged with Det Con Michael Swindells? death, doctors at Ashworth deemed he was ?clearly very ill?.

His delusions at this time also included claims he had been infected with Gamma rays from his microwave but had cured himself and that atomic bombs had been exploded secretly, which accounted for the world?s depleted ozone layer.

Although improvements had been made in his condition since then, even to the point of recalling in more detail the events that led to Det Con Swindells? death, the medical staff agreed he had an abnormality of mind at the time of the stabbing which would have substantially diminished his responsibility.

His condition was ?chronic? and he would require lifelong treatment.

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