KILLER COULD GET LEAVE
27.09.1996
By TONY KOCH chief reporter
CONFESSED killer Ross Farrah will be
allowed escorted leave from the psychiatric hospital where he is held
if his psych
iatrist agrees.
Farrah, 26, confessed on Oct
ober 26 last year to killing former girlfriend Christine Nash at
Coolum, on the Sunshine Coast.
Farrah, a diagnosed paranoid schizophrenic, told police he had
kicked Ms Nash in the face 25 times and then strangled her.
A subsequent hearing of the Mental Health Tribunal found he was of
unsound mind at the time of the offence, and he was committed to the
John Oxley Memorial Hospital.
Tribunal head Supreme Court Justice Paul de Jersey said in his
judgment: ""The patient is a severely unstable and highly dangerous
paranoid schizophrenic.
""He will have the right to apply for leave at some future time.
That would ordinarily be determined in the first instance by the
Patient Review Tribunal.''
Justice de Jersey referred to the ""dangerous propensity of the
patient and the grave importance . . . of allaying public fear''.
According to documents from the Patient Review Tribunal, Farrah
applied for discharge from the hospital on September 10.
The documents say: ""The tribunal recommended that it is necessary
in the interests of Mr Farrah's own welfare, and for the protection of
other persons, that he should continue to be liable to be detained, and
refused his application
for discharge.
""The tribunal further recommended that he be granted short periods
of escorted ground leave and escorted outings with the other patients
of the Interim Secure
Unit (of the John Oxley), other than to the Sunshine Coast, at the
discretion of the treating psychiatrist.
Ms Nash's parents, Ron and Patricia Nash, of Mooloolah, were
concerned about Farrah being considered for leave programmes because he
was ""a killer who will strike again if he gets a chance''.
A Mental Health official yesterday said the cases of all patients
were reviewed at least once a year.
CONFESSED killer Ross Farrah, left, and victim Christine Nash.
