Robert Bluglass: forensic psychiatrist who called for the closure of high security psychiatric hospitals

bmj;379/nov08_11/o2697/FAF1faCredit: Avalon.redWhen Steven Daggett, a convicted sex offender, absconded from Ashworth high security psychiatric hospital in September 1996 he got as far as the Netherlands and agreed to return only if his allegations of the misuse of drugs and alcohol, availability of pornography, and possible paedophile activity at the hospital were investigated.The subsequent inquiry, chaired by Peter Fallon QC and led by Robert Bluglass, who has died aged 91, found Daggett’s description to be “largely accurate” and called for the closure of the hospital. “We have no confidence of the ability of Ashworth Hospital to flourish under any management,” the report concluded in 1999 (www.bmj.com/content/318/7178/211). The recommendation was rejected by health secretary Frank Dobson.InnovatorSeven years earlier Bluglass had called for the closure of high security psychiatric hospitals and urged the establishment of new local security units (www.bmj.com/content/305/6849/323).“Robert was a pioneer in the development of forensic psychiatry and had a key…
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