Violent child sex offender can be sent to UK after ruling
A VIOLENT child sex offender jailed in Bermuda for an attack on a five-year-old girl could be sent to the UK to receive mental health treatment free on the NHS.
A high court in the British overseas territory ruled that Merrick Seaman, 33, should be sent to St Andrew's Healthcare in Northampton for expert care.
Seaman was sentenced to eight years in jail in 2011 for a serious sexual assault on the girl the previous year.
It was described as a "very clearly planned" attack with the girl targeted as she "was unlikely to put up any real struggle".
British taxpayers will pick up the bill if Seaman is moved to the psychiatric facility in Northampton.
Bermuda Supreme Court Judge Shade Subair said in a written judgment: “The wider purpose is to protect the community from further harm, which Seaman would likely cause if not further detained and treated.”
Seaman was eligible for parole in April 2013, but it was recommended that his release should be delayed until the risk of him committing further offences was reduced.
Seaman was given another psychiatric review the next year after he said: "I intend to go on a killing spree when I get out of jail."
He was convicted of wounding another inmate and had another nine months added to his sentence in 2016.
How long Seaman will spend in the UK was not specified, but Judge Subair said: "It would be irresponsible for this court to impose an artificial time limit on the period of Seaman's hospital detainment overseas merely for the sake of defining his term of detention.
"However, this court will review and monitor his progress by receipt of progress reports from the applicants at six-month intervals.
“A court hearing review on Seaman’s mental health prognosis shall also be held one year from now.”
Seaman's earliest possible release date was June 15, but the Bermuda Government moved him to a psychiatric facility on June 13 so he could be detained under the Mental Health Act.
The Supreme Court judgement released this week said the Ministry of Health and the Bermuda Hospitals Board sought a hospital detention order to allow Seaman to be moved to a UK hospital.
A risk assessment by British psychologist Emcee Chekwas recommended that Seaman receive further treatment as there was a “high risk” of further offences.
Dr Chekwas said: “He is likely to be best helped if placed in a medium secure forensic unit with specialist staff with ability to evaluate, diagnose and intervene appropriately to help him.
“His current incarceration in Westgate Correctional Facility is merely keeping him in custody, but not addressing the risks and needs he presents.
“The services likely to help him are currently unavailable in Bermuda and, even where intervention abroad could be secured, he will require long-term care.”
Katina Anagnostakis, a forensic psychiatrist at St Andrew’s Healthcare, said it was likely Seaman’s condition would deteriorate without further treatment.
Dr Anagnostakis said: “I believe that he will make rapid progress in a more therapeutic and less restricted setting in relation to stability of his mental state and functional rehabilitation.
“Progress in relation to developing his insight and engaging in offence-related work aimed at risk reduction will be more challenging for him given his history and will depend on his motivation.”
Dr Anagnostakis said St Andrew's would admit Seaman if the courts in Bermuda and the UK approved the move.
National security minister Wayne Caines said Seaman remained in custody under the Mental Health Act, which allows for “specialised monitoring”.
The problem of how to deal with prisoners with psychiatric illness has been discussed for years because of the island's lack of high-security accommodation in a hospital.
The Bermuda Government signed an agreement for the transfer of prisoners to the Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust in Britain in 2010.
An agreement with St Andrews was signed in 2017, but the BHB said at the time 'complex legal considerations' still had to be resolved.
