A man who claimed he was going to petrol bomb his own flat in an attempt to get himself sectioned ended up being charged by police.
In what his solicitor called "a very unusual case", Gary Andrew Evans ended up in front of magistrates on the basis of what he had said during a mental health assessment at the Heddfan Unit, Wrexham .
Bethan Jones, representing Mr Evans, said she had never before come across a case where the claims someone made in an assessment of their mental health had led to them being prosecuted.
Flintshire magistrates found Evans, 51, of Salisbury Street in Shotton , not guilty of threatening to firebomb either his own flat or that of his neighbour.
They said that that when he made the remarks he was confused and agitated and felt vulnerable enough that he wanted to be sectioned and admitted to hospital.
They did not feel that his intentions were serious when he made the remarks and the bench had seen a supportive letter from the neighbour involved which showed that they had a good relationship.
Evans said he believed that staff would “see through him”, appreciate that he was lying and he said that he had no intention of carrying any of the threats out.
Social work staff carrying out the assessment were so concerned by some of the things he said that the police were called.
He threatened to “burn out” a neighbour and said he would stab someone in a street in Shotton, explained prosecutor Rhian Jones.
She said that the defendant said such things intending that the staff would take him seriously.
see-http://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/man-prosecuted-over-cry-help-11796777
Evans told how he was seriously ill and on pain killers and his mental health had not been good.
That day he rang the police, indicated he intended to take his own life, he was taken to hospital but he wanted to be sectioned.
He made the comments during the mental health assessment but had no intention of carrying them out. He simply wanted to be sectioned, he explained.
Miss Jones said that it was an unusual case. It probably happened on a daily basis in such assessments throughout the country but people were not normally charged, she said.
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