- 3 days ago
Michael Lucas (Michael Byrne) is on trial for manslaughter.
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00:00:00Transcription by CastingWords
00:00:30The case you're about to see is fictional, but the jury is made up of members of the public
00:00:36who will assess the evidence and deliver their own verdict at the end of the programme.
00:01:00At 10.15, on the night of April the 28th, 18-year-old Benjamin Merton committed suicide by jumping
00:01:11off a footbridge at Fullchester South Station in front of a good strain.
00:01:15He'd spent the previous weekend at a 48-hour marathon encounter group.
00:01:19Prosecution alleged that the boy was a latent psychotic, that Michael Lucas, the clinical
00:01:23psychologist who led the group, was grossly negligent in exposing him to this intensive experience,
00:01:29and that this mistreatment was the direct cause of Benjamin's subsequent suicide.
00:01:34Lucas is on trial for manslaughter.
00:01:36Miss Anne Nicholson, a fellow participant in the weekend marathon group, is in the witness
00:01:41box.
00:01:42Yes, there were 12 of us in the group.
00:01:44Yes, now, Miss Nicholson, would you please explain to the court what is a marathon encounter group?
00:01:51Well, my lord, Michael Lucas describes it in his pamphlets as a continuous residential experience
00:01:57taking place in a private, secluded setting, lasting 48 hours, with only one short break
00:02:03for sleep.
00:02:04And did you regard this marathon as some kind of psychiatric treatment?
00:02:08Oh, no, my lord.
00:02:09It's really nothing to do with orthodox psychiatry.
00:02:12It's supposed to be a kind of workshop for group interaction and personality development.
00:02:17You all talk about your problems and do various kinds of exercises.
00:02:22Personality development?
00:02:23Yes.
00:02:24Yes, Mr. Parsons.
00:02:25Now, Miss Nicholson, will you tell the jury what happened to Benjamin Murchin on the morning
00:02:29of Sunday, April 27th?
00:02:32He had a psychotic breakdown.
00:02:34Oh, my lord, Miss Nicholson is not qualified to apply technical terms to any incident she
00:02:37may have witnessed.
00:02:38Yes, I think that's right, Mr. Honeycomb.
00:02:40Perhaps you would just describe what you saw.
00:02:42I saw a boy in an absolutely uncontrollable state.
00:02:45He was laughing, crying, talking gibberish.
00:02:49At one point, he was obviously hallucinating.
00:02:52How do you mean hallucinating?
00:02:53Well, he thought his mother was in the room.
00:02:56He was screaming at her.
00:02:57Yes.
00:02:57Had he been behaving in an excitable manner before this occurred?
00:03:00Oh, no.
00:03:01No, quite the reverse.
00:03:02He'd been extremely quiet since the group commenced at nine o'clock on Friday night.
00:03:06He'd hardly spoken.
00:03:06We didn't have a break for sleep for the first 26 hours, and then we started again the next
00:03:12morning at six.
00:03:14Yes.
00:03:15How did you start the next morning?
00:03:17I was the one in the hot seat, as it's called.
00:03:19The hot seat?
00:03:20Yes, my lord.
00:03:21One person talks about how they're feeling about themselves and about the others in the
00:03:25group, and then the group come back with their reactions and feelings about that person.
00:03:30What sort of truth game, is it?
00:03:34I suppose you could call it that, my lord.
00:03:36Please go on.
00:03:38Well, I'd been trying to articulate some particularly complicated and painful feelings of mine when
00:03:46Benjamin suddenly interrupted me and said something very aggressive.
00:03:51Yes.
00:03:52What was that?
00:03:53He said, she just likes listening to the sound of her own bloody voice.
00:03:58Well, I wasn't in the least offended.
00:04:00I was interested, actually, but before I could ask him what he meant, Michael Lucas said, don't
00:04:06talk about her, talk to her.
00:04:09Tell her what you're feeling about her.
00:04:11And then Benjamin began a wild verbal attack on me.
00:04:16As a matter of fact, he turned the whole group against me.
00:04:18Yes, and the accused, what did he do?
00:04:21He just kept telling him to go on.
00:04:23I could see the boy was in a very unbalanced state.
00:04:25He just got more and more wild.
00:04:27He began making gibberish noises and crouching, moving about in a funny, erratic way.
00:04:33He should have been calmed down.
00:04:35But was not.
00:04:36No.
00:04:38After a while, he suddenly began to cry.
00:04:40I went over to him, actually, and I put my arms around him and tried to quieten him.
00:04:46He was in dreadful distress.
00:04:48But Michael Lucas called to me to leave him alone, and when I refused, he took me by the
00:04:54arm and led me back to my seat.
00:04:55Well, after that, I really wanted no more part of it.
00:04:58I went into a corner of the room and tried to read a book.
00:05:01Yes, and Benjamin?
00:05:03Well, he just went entirely to pieces.
00:05:05He was in a thoroughly dangerous state, but Michael Lucas kept urging him to go on.
00:05:09Well, eventually they tried to roll and rock him, but it was really too late.
00:05:13Roll and rock him?
00:05:15Oh, yes, it's an exercise, my lord.
00:05:17You form a close circle, and you put the person in the center, and then roll him from one to
00:05:22another, and then you lift him off the ground and rock him to and fro.
00:05:25It's supposed to make the person relaxed and trusting, but he was really much too far gone.
00:05:32He just lay on the floor, whimpering like a baby.
00:05:35It was really most painful.
00:05:36Yes, and after that?
00:05:40Well, I left the room.
00:05:41I said I was going to the bathroom, but actually I was so shocked and repelled by what had happened,
00:05:45I went to my car, and I drove home.
00:05:49Yes, now, Miss Nicholson, you have participated in group encounter work before, I believe.
00:05:53Yes, I was in an ongoing group, led by Michael Lucas, that met once a week for the last four
00:05:58months of last year.
00:05:59Yes, and had you ever come across a similar incident in your group workshops?
00:06:03Never.
00:06:03If I had thought that anything like that could happen, I would never have signed up for the
00:06:08marathon.
00:06:09Yes.
00:06:09Thank you, Miss Nicholson.
00:06:11And, Miss Nicholson, as I understand it, there is a rule that all members of a marathon
00:06:16encounter weekend make a definite commitment not to leave the group until the formal closure
00:06:20of the meeting.
00:06:21Yes, that is true, however, I felt that my commitment had been invalidated.
00:06:27This may sound a little pretentious, but for moral reasons, a young boy had been precipitated
00:06:32into an extremely dangerous condition, as anyone could have seen.
00:06:36Yes, but except for you, no one did.
00:06:38Now, had Mr. Lucas been as keenly aware of the danger as you claim to have been, what should
00:06:43he have done?
00:06:44Got proper psychiatric help for the boy.
00:06:46Well, tell me, Miss Nicholson, did it occur to you, as a result of what you say you witnessed
00:06:50and have described to us, to seek qualified help for the boy before you left the house
00:06:55that Sunday?
00:06:56Well, there wasn't anything I could do.
00:06:58Oh, well, surely you could have telephoned for an ambulance, couldn't you, or even the
00:07:02police, if you really had witnessed a dangerous situation.
00:07:05Well, I didn't really think of it in those terms.
00:07:10What, because at the time you didn't think that the situation required such drastic remedies?
00:07:14No.
00:07:15No.
00:07:16Miss Nicholson, you had not previously regarded my client as an irresponsible person, had
00:07:23you?
00:07:25Anything he may have told you about my feelings for him, I...
00:07:30Well, I was in a very emotional state during that period.
00:07:33No, Miss Nicholson, my client has given me no instructions at all about any feelings you
00:07:39may have had for him.
00:07:40Those feelings are not our concern.
00:07:43However, you found your own experience in this group disappointing and frustrating.
00:07:47Yes, I was thoroughly disillusioned.
00:07:49Yes, and you don't deny that you felt anger towards my client?
00:07:53Because of the way he treated that boy.
00:07:54Well, the fact is, Miss Nicholson, isn't it, that the anger you felt when you left the house
00:07:58that day was a purely personal resentment, and it has strongly coloured your evidence
00:08:03in this court, hasn't it?
00:08:05No.
00:08:08Miss Nicholson, the very alarming breakdown that Benjamin Merton had the day before his
00:08:13death, what was the duration of that breakdown?
00:08:15I should say it was at least an hour, perhaps more.
00:08:19Yes, and throughout this period, did the accused do anything to alleviate Benjamin Merton's terrible
00:08:25distress?
00:08:26On the contrary.
00:08:28He did everything he could to exacerbate it.
00:08:30Yes.
00:08:31Thank you, Miss Nicholson.
00:08:32No further questions.
00:08:33Well, thank you, Miss Nicholson.
00:08:34I call Mrs. Sylvia Merton.
00:08:45You are Mrs. Sylvia Merton of 63 Melville Road, Fulchester.
00:08:50Yes, I am.
00:08:51And you are the mother of the deceased Benjamin Derek Merton?
00:08:56Yes.
00:08:57And I believe you're a widowed, Mrs. Merton.
00:09:00Yes.
00:09:01Now, Mrs. Merton, I know this is going to be extremely painful for you,
00:09:04but I must ask you about your son's behavior on the night he died.
00:09:09Now, when did you first see him on that Monday, Monday 28th of April?
00:09:14At about nine o'clock in the evening.
00:09:17I'd been away for a week in Wolverhampton, taking care of my sister, who was very ill,
00:09:22and I arrived back in Fulchester at about 7.30 that evening.
00:09:27But you didn't see your son until nine?
00:09:29No.
00:09:30I was very surprised when he wasn't at the station to meet me.
00:09:34And he wasn't at home.
00:09:36I telephoned Mr. Field.
00:09:38He was my son's old headmaster, and he was supposed to be staying there.
00:09:42Well, Mr. Field told me he hadn't stayed there at all.
00:09:46He'd asked for our key, and he'd spent the whole week at home.
00:09:50Well, I was very upset by this.
00:09:52Why did that worry you so much, Mrs. Merton?
00:09:54Well, I couldn't understand why the plans had been changed, my lord.
00:09:59My son was very young for his age.
00:10:01He couldn't possibly have looked after himself.
00:10:03I see.
00:10:04Yes.
00:10:04But your son came in at nine o'clock.
00:10:07Yes.
00:10:09He suddenly burst into the house.
00:10:12He looked dreadful.
00:10:15Dreadful.
00:10:16In what way?
00:10:18Well, so untidy.
00:10:20You'd never seen my boy untidy.
00:10:23His clothes every which way, and mud all over his shoes, and he was exhausted, you could
00:10:30tell.
00:10:30His face, he was so pale, and perspiration all over his face, and his hair soaked in it.
00:10:40And he started talking the moment he came through the door.
00:10:43Not a word of apology about not meeting my train.
00:10:46But what was he talking about?
00:10:49I couldn't make it out.
00:10:51This thing he called a marathon.
00:10:55A whole weekend with strangers in the house of a person I didn't even know, this Lucas.
00:11:02Complete strangers.
00:11:05Playing games with them, he said, and telling each other things.
00:11:10All kinds of private things.
00:11:14And sleeping in the same room, on cushions, men and women, together.
00:11:19It all came out at once.
00:11:22I kept asking him to slow down and tell me properly, but he just rushed on, pell-mell.
00:11:27I cracked up.
00:11:29Mother, he said.
00:11:31I really cracked up.
00:11:32What did he mean by that, did he say?
00:11:35Oh, I couldn't get him to explain.
00:11:37I begged of him to tell me exactly what happened.
00:11:41But he just kept saying, it wasn't a breakdown.
00:11:46It was a breakthrough.
00:11:47Again and again.
00:11:49And he couldn't keep still.
00:11:50He'd sit down for a minute and then jumping up and laughing one minute and nearly crying the next.
00:11:56It was terrible.
00:11:57How long did this go on for, Mrs. Merton?
00:12:01Oh, about half an hour.
00:12:05He wouldn't let me get a word in.
00:12:06And finally I got so upset that I went into the hall to telephone our doctor.
00:12:11But he ran round and he blocked my way.
00:12:14Yes, was his behaviour totally untypical?
00:12:15Hadn't you seen him exhibit such behaviour before?
00:12:18No.
00:12:19As I say, he was a stranger to me that night.
00:12:21He wasn't my son.
00:12:23Yes, and you felt he needed to see a doctor.
00:12:25Well, yes, it seemed to me he must be ill.
00:12:27Yes, but he refused to let you call the doctor.
00:12:30Yes.
00:12:31He just stood there talking.
00:12:32The words pouring out of him.
00:12:35I couldn't bear to let him go on.
00:12:38And I took hold of him by the shoulders.
00:12:40And I shook him.
00:12:42I helped to shout to make him listen to me.
00:12:46I can't remember what I said.
00:12:47But I was just trying to get him to come to his senses.
00:12:51Yes, did you succeed?
00:12:53Well, not really, no.
00:12:54He went quiet, but he was miles away.
00:12:59He stared at me for a minute, but he wasn't really seeing me.
00:13:03I could tell.
00:13:04And then he wrenched himself out of my hands.
00:13:07And before I knew what was happening, he'd run straight out of the house.
00:13:11And he left the front door open.
00:13:14And the wind.
00:13:19The wind was blowing in.
00:13:21Yes, did you go after him?
00:13:23Yes.
00:13:28Yes.
00:13:29I ran down the front steps and I could see him running down the road.
00:13:36He was too far away for me to call out.
00:13:38And I didn't.
00:13:40Well, I couldn't.
00:13:41Not shouting in the street.
00:13:46I wanted to do something, but I didn't know what to do.
00:13:52And I...
00:13:53I just came back into the house, and I waited for him to come back.
00:14:02Which, of course, he never did.
00:14:03The police said there'd been an accident.
00:14:11They took me to the hospital.
00:14:14They wanted me to identify the body.
00:14:18Mr. Parsons, the verdict of the inquest was suicide while the balance of the mind was disturbed.
00:14:23Yes, my lord.
00:14:24Yes, my lord.
00:14:25Yes, my lord.
00:14:26Oh, yes, yes.
00:14:27But he didn't know.
00:14:28He didn't know what he was doing.
00:14:29No.
00:14:30He jumped off the bridge and the train.
00:14:32Yes.
00:14:33I'm sorry to have to distress you in this way, Mrs. Merchant, but I'm afraid I must ask you these questions.
00:14:38Yes.
00:14:39Now, your son had made a previous suicide attempt in October 1973, when he was 16, hadn't he?
00:14:48Oh, yes, but that was a mistake.
00:14:51An overdose.
00:14:53Yes, but, as I say, it wasn't serious.
00:14:56Well, it was serious enough for him to be taken to hospital to have his stomach pumped out, wasn't it?
00:15:00Oh, yes, yes.
00:15:01Well, they had to do that.
00:15:02We didn't know how much he'd taken, you see.
00:15:05But it was only because he was cross with me about the school trip to Norway.
00:15:11Well, I knew it wouldn't be right for him to go, but he just did this little pill thing to upset me, you see.
00:15:20As I say, it wasn't serious.
00:15:22Yes, but after this incident, Mrs. Merchant, did the consultant psychiatrist at the hospital arrange for your son to have further psychiatric outpatient care?
00:15:30Oh, yes, but he was a normal boy, he was just very highly strung.
00:15:36Yes, well, you see, Mrs. Merchant, you say he was a normal boy, he was just highly strung, but what we are trying to ascertain here today is whether he should have gone to this marathon group, whether he was the sort of person...
00:15:49Well, no, no, of course he wasn't.
00:15:54It was a criminal thing to do to him.
00:15:56I mean, he was always a very sensitive boy.
00:16:00Well, he was born with a little deformity of the hick, you know, and he was in plaster for four years from 11 months.
00:16:08I took him everywhere with me in a little pushchair.
00:16:11He was always with me, and I never left him.
00:16:14He was a good, happy, obedient little boy.
00:16:18Now, I never had any trouble with him until that summer, when he was 16.
00:16:22Ah, yes, now, it was during that summer that he began his seven-month course of psychiatric outpatient care.
00:16:28Yes, but it wasn't really the right thing for him.
00:16:32Now, Mrs Merton, Benjamin seemed quite happy and normal before you left for Wolverhampton at the beginning of that week in question.
00:16:44Oh, yes, of course. I wouldn't have gone otherwise.
00:16:47Well, of course, it was an emergency, my sister being taken so ill, but I'd never left him before.
00:16:53But he was leading a quiet, regular life, doing well at his job at the town hall and getting on with little jobs about the house.
00:17:01I hadn't a worry in the world about him.
00:17:04But when you came back, you found him in an excited and incoherent state, laughing one minute and crying the next.
00:17:10Yes.
00:17:11And it was later, that same evening, that he committed suicide.
00:17:16Yes.
00:17:17Yes.
00:17:18Thank you, Mrs Merton.
00:17:20Um, Mrs Merton, when you say that you never left your son, you surely don't mean that you weren't ever separated from each other.
00:17:30No.
00:17:31Never for a day.
00:17:32But he didn't, er, stay with friends or go on holiday with his contemporaries?
00:17:36No, no.
00:17:37We always went on holiday together to Cornwall.
00:17:40Hmm.
00:17:41He didn't like sleeping away from home.
00:17:43Oh, when I say never, there were the two times when he was in hospital, when he was a baby with his hip and then, er, the other, at the time of the pill affair.
00:17:55Yes, now, er, that affair.
00:17:58I think you said that during that summer, when Benjamin was 16, he became difficult.
00:18:03Yes.
00:18:04Can you tell us in what way, please?
00:18:06Well, he wouldn't tell me what he was thinking, for one thing.
00:18:10He'd always told me everything before, and, and he'd go out, not tell me where he was.
00:18:16And wanting to be by himself too much.
00:18:19Hours sitting in his room and reading and listening to gramophone records and, er, and funny little fits of temper.
00:18:28If I criticised him about the least thing, he'd, he'd flare up.
00:18:32Oh, he was a changed boy that summer.
00:18:34Well, none of that sounds very unusual for a growing adolescent.
00:18:37Oh, it was unusual for Bibby.
00:18:39Bibby?
00:18:40Oh, that was my name for him, my lord. I always called him that.
00:18:44I see, yes.
00:18:45And I gather, Mrs. Merton, that you were very opposed to any psychiatric treatment for him.
00:18:50Oh, yes. It wasn't necessary.
00:18:53I told him it was silly to go on with it. It was upsetting him so much or giving him nightmares, for one thing.
00:19:01And I was right. He settled down into his old self the moment that outpatient business was over and done with.
00:19:07His old self. Hmm.
00:19:09Mr. Honeycomb, I wonder, are we perhaps taking up too much time on past history?
00:19:14Well, I intend now to deal with the events of the night of April the 28th, my lord.
00:19:18However, it is essential, from my point of view, that the jury get a clear picture of Benjamin Merton's childhood development.
00:19:24Hmm.
00:19:25It is, of course, part of my case that the repressive and destructive relationship he had with his mother
00:19:30was a far more vital factor in the suicide than the marathon encounter weekend.
00:19:35Hmm.
00:19:36Uh, Mrs. Merton, did Benjamin tell you where he'd been before coming home that night?
00:19:41Yes. To that Lucas' house. He went back there.
00:19:45Yes, uh, for advice.
00:19:47Advice? From him? And he'd walked all the way home seven miles.
00:19:52Oh, which would explain the mud on his shoes, the untidiness, the perspiration that you described.
00:19:56Yes, but he wasn't strong. He shouldn't have walked seven miles.
00:19:58Now, tell me, tell me. Did he, did he give you the impression, that evening, of being happy?
00:20:04Happy? Oh, you might call it that. Well, that wasn't real happiness, all jangled up and, and overexcited beside himself.
00:20:14Yes, yes. Excited. Enthusiastic. A stranger to you. Just as the sixteen-year-old reaching out for a little privacy, trying to grow up, was, as you said, a changed boy.
00:20:29Now, did he tell you that Michael Lucas had, that evening, arranged private psychotherapy for Benjamin to begin the next week?
00:20:35Oh, yes. That was all part of it, as if he hadn't done enough to my boy.
00:20:38Yes, and did you forbid it, Mrs. Merton, as you always had done before?
00:20:41Oh, well, he wouldn't listen to me.
00:20:43So you took him by the shoulders, and you shook him. You shouted at him, you said. What was it that you shouted, Mrs. Merton?
00:20:55I can't remember. No, I don't remember. I was just trying to make him pull himself together.
00:21:02Joan Carmichael, a friend of your son's, will testify that she had a telephone call from Benjamin at 9.40 after he left your house.
00:21:08That girl was no friend to me.
00:21:09He was calling from a public call box, and he was in a very distressed state of mind. He was crying.
00:21:14He said that you had just told him, Mrs. Merton, that his father had died in a mental hospital when Benjamin was two years old.
00:21:20It was none of her business. It had nothing to do with her.
00:21:23But everything to do with your son.
00:21:26That was what you shouted at him, wasn't it, Mrs. Merton?
00:21:29That secret that you'd kept from him all his life.
00:21:34Wasn't that why he stared at you in shock and terror?
00:21:37Wasn't that why he ran out of the house that night to his desperate, tragic death?
00:21:43Wasn't it, Mrs. Merton?
00:21:45You told your son about his father that night because you were frightened for him.
00:21:58Yes. Yes, I was terrified.
00:22:01Yes, because he was behaving in a terrifying manner.
00:22:03Yes. He was like a wild thing. Any minute you'd think he'd fly apart.
00:22:11Yes. Now that tallies with the statement of Miss Nicholson, who was another member of the Marathon Encounter Group.
00:22:18She said that when Benjamin was going through this breakdown in the group, he swung between laughter and weeping and moved about erratically and poured out torrents of senseless and incoherent words.
00:22:29Yes. Yes. That's just the way he was.
00:22:32Yes. Now was he like this before you told him about his father?
00:22:36Oh, yes. Oh, yes. Yes. The same. Exactly the same.
00:22:41Thank you, Mrs. Merton. I have no other questions, my lord.
00:22:44You may leave the witness, perhaps, Mrs. Merton.
00:22:46I call Professor Samuel Bonner.
00:22:56You are Samuel Bonner, Professor of Psychiatry at the St. Pius Teaching Hospital of the University of London.
00:23:02I am.
00:23:03And you are a Doctor of Medicine, Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, Fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, and you hold the Diploma of Psychological Medicine.
00:23:11Yes.
00:23:12Did you treat Benjamin Merton when he was a patient in the Folchester Hospital after a suicide attempt in October 1973?
00:23:20Yes. I was a consultant psychiatrist at that hospital until 1974. I handled the case. I was heading a research survey on disturbed adolescents at the time.
00:23:30Yes. Could you describe his condition for us, please?
00:23:32It was a temporary breakdown situation. Clinically, he showed such features as withdrawal from external reality, rigidity of posture and movement,
00:23:41and thought disorder. He remained mute and refused food until he arranged for his mother to come and feed him.
00:23:48He was only in hospital for ten days. His mother was opposed to a longer stay.
00:23:53But you did arrange further treatment for the boy after he left the hospital.
00:23:56What I could, yes. Unfortunately, there never seemed to be adequate funds or facilities for the work that needs to be done in this field.
00:24:03Manifested suicidal impulses are much more common in adolescence than people seem to realize.
00:24:09Now, this boy attended hospital once a week for psychotherapy. It was more of a holding than a healing operation, and even this was terminated by his mother after seven months.
00:24:20Yes. During the treatment period, did a clearer picture of his mental state emerge?
00:24:26The case notes indicate basic defects in achieving maturity of the personality, and there were clear signs of inadequate ego development.
00:24:34Now, I think that the crucial period which precipitated the suicide act could have been adequately worked through in sustained psychotherapy.
00:24:42And without this working through...
00:24:45There was still a reasonable possibility of adjustment, providing that the pressures he encountered didn't put too great a stress on his emotional capabilities.
00:24:54And if the stresses did prove too great...
00:24:56Now, under extreme pressure, there is a risk, in a case like this one, of psychotic breakdown.
00:25:01Yes. Now, Professor Bonner, is it your opinion that this intensive marathon experience that Benjamin Merton was exposed to represents just such an extreme pressure?
00:25:11Yes, that is my opinion.
00:25:12And because of that, he, in fact, did suffer a psychotic breakdown?
00:25:17Yes. From the information I have heard, I would say so definitely.
00:25:20Yes.
00:25:21But you have no evidence of Miss Nicholson and Mrs. Merton.
00:25:23I'm afraid I couldn't get here in time, my lord, but I have, of course, seen statements from them about Benjamin's behavior.
00:25:28Yes. Yes.
00:25:30Now, Professor Bonner, on April 22nd, did the accused Michael Lucas telephone you?
00:25:36Yes. He told me that he was screening applicants for a marathon encounter group. Benjamin Merton had applied.
00:25:42Mr. Lucas had previously posted me the boy's written approval of such an inquiry.
00:25:48I gave him details of the history and symptoms we had encountered and told him that, in my opinion, Benjamin was quite unsuited for this sort of activity.
00:25:57Yes. Can you tell us in a little more detail the sort of bad reaction this activity might provoke?
00:26:04Possible severe anxiety and depressive withdrawal, or a splitting off from reality into disruptive and aggressive behavior, perhaps self-inflicted physical injury and acute emotional distress.
00:26:16Now, from my own experience, I am convinced that the sort of stimulation produced in these amateur groups can be very hazardous for an unstable personality.
00:26:26Yes. And if this sort of behavior did result, what procedure should the group leader take?
00:26:33Any responsible practitioner would immediately remove the person from the group, and if the symptoms were severe, obtain emergency treatment, tranquilizer, sedation, even hospitalization.
00:26:43Yes, I see. Professor Bonner, when you say that from your experience, the stimulation produced by some of these groups can be very hazardous, do you refer to specific cases?
00:26:50Indeed I do, my lord. In the past eight years, I have treated three patients who suffered psychotic or near-psychotic reactions to encounter group exposure.
00:26:59Now, an enormous amount of excellent group therapy is undertaken in institutions that anybody can set up as an encounter group leader, and anywhere.
00:27:10One of the patients I referred to had participated in a group led by a man who had discontinued his own psychiatric treatment.
00:27:16I see. And I think you're saying that it could be foreseen that a marathon experience might provoke bad reactions in Benjamin Merton.
00:27:23Now, would these bad reactions include suicide?
00:27:26Indeed, yes, my lord. A person in that state would be quite unpredictable, and might well be deprived of all normal responses and instincts of self-preservation.
00:27:35And would you expect a man with Mr. Lucas's experience and qualifications to be aware of these dangers?
00:27:40I would, my lord. Well, let's get on.
00:27:44Now, Professor Bonner, in your expert opinion, was Michael Lucas wrong in accepting Benjamin Merton for this group?
00:27:51More than that, I regard it as absolutely irresponsible.
00:27:55Yes. And what about the accused behaviour and apparent inertia after this boy had begun to show symptoms of a psychotic breakdown?
00:28:03I would say that his behaviour was negligent in the extreme.
00:28:06Yes. And could this negligence have been the direct cause of the subsequent suicide?
00:28:10That seems to me very probable, yes. It would not have occurred if Benjamin had been properly looked after.
00:28:17Yes. Thank you, Professor.
00:28:19Um, Professor Bonner, were you ever informed by Mrs. Merton that her husband had died in a mental hospital?
00:28:26No, I was not.
00:28:28And nor was her son, until she imparted this fact to him very suddenly on the night of his death.
00:28:33Now, could not this have caused an emotional shock precipitating the suicidal act?
00:28:38Very difficult to say. It would depend entirely on what state he was in at that point.
00:28:44Professor, is your accusation of extreme negligence against my client based on your assumption that Benjamin Merton was a latent psychotic?
00:28:52Not an assumption, a possibility.
00:28:54And you told Mr. Lucas this in your telephone conversation of April the 22nd?
00:28:58Yes, as I've said, I gave him details of the case.
00:29:00Well, my client's recollection, Professor, is that the telephone conversation was mainly taken up with your own very negative opinions about encounter work generally.
00:29:08As I've already said, my clinical experience of the results of such work was far from positive.
00:29:13Hmm. Yes, you mentioned three cases over a period of eight years.
00:29:18Now, are you aware that Mr. Lucas has worked in the last six years with over 700 people in groups, none of whom suffered injurious results?
00:29:26Even a single case of gross disturbance is serious.
00:29:30And I would think that the suicide of an 18-year-old boy must be classed as an injurious result.
00:29:36Well, you see, one of the issues in this trial is whether or not it was the experience in the group that caused the suicide.
00:29:43Now, to return to this telephone conversation, Michael Lucas will testify that at no time did you use the term latent psychotic, nor did you give him full details of symptoms and treatment.
00:29:55I told him that Merton was an attempted suicide case, that he had been in my care for some months, and that I did not advise encounter work for him.
00:30:03Hmm. Now, you said earlier, Professor Bonner, manifested suicidal impulses in adolescents are not uncommon.
00:30:10Right. Now, would you maintain that every case of this kind indicates latent psychosis?
00:30:18No, of course not. It's quite often a temporary emotional crisis.
00:30:22Yes, exactly. And from what my client gathered, this might have been the case with Benjamin Merton.
00:30:26It might be, yes. However, in this case, a psychotic episode did occur. My accusations of negligence referred to Lucas' behavior when it did.
00:30:34Hmm. Which brings us to one of the most crucial issues confronting us. Whether what happened to Benjamin Merton that weekend was, in fact, a breakdown.
00:30:46I was not aware that that point was ever in question.
00:30:49Well, that's not surprising, you see, because you have been asked to testify as an expert witness in a prosecution case which pivots upon this being taken as fact.
00:30:59Now, what sources of information had you, Professor, concerning this alleged breakdown?
00:31:05A detailed report made by a Miss Nicholson who was present in the group.
00:31:09Her description was substantiated by another report by Mrs Merton, the boy's mother.
00:31:14They describe his behavior as characterized by disorientation, infantile regression, thought, disorder, and hallucination.
00:31:22Now, the hallucinations would be a very significant feature.
00:31:25Very much so. Delusions and hallucinations are commonly observed in psychosis.
00:31:29Yes. And both reports describe this?
00:31:31Well, Miss Nicholson gave a clear account of hallucinatory behavior.
00:31:34She said that he was speaking and shouting, sometimes in what I take to be a hebephrenic or markedly childish manner,
00:31:41to a threatening figure whom he perceived as his mother.
00:31:44Yes, right. Now, Professor Bonner, are you familiar with the work of Dr. Alexander Lowen,
00:31:49the American psychotherapist and director of the Institute for Bioenergetics in New York?
00:31:53Yes, I have read his work.
00:31:55Well, you would know then of his anger outward exercises,
00:31:59in which the subject is asked to pound a couch or a pillow
00:32:02whilst expressing undischarged feelings of rage and frustration.
00:32:06Well, it was this exercise that my client had asked Benjamin Merton to perform while imagining his mother.
00:32:13Now, could such actions be misinterpreted as hallucinatory behavior?
00:32:20Perhaps, yes. But surely, as a participating member of the group, Miss Nicholson would be aware that this was an exercise.
00:32:27Ah, yes. But you see, she has told us that she had withdrawn from the group and was sitting in the corner of the room reading a book.
00:32:33And she also admits that she left the house before the group was concluded.
00:32:37So she didn't see that the boy was carefully and affectionately calmed down by my client and that he slept for several hours thereafter.
00:32:47I was not informed of this?
00:32:49No. Obviously not.
00:32:52Now, Professor Bonner, my client says that you did not give him full details of symptoms and treatment
00:32:57and that, in particular, you did not mention the possibility of latent psychosis.
00:33:02He is also quite clear that what happened to Benjamin on the morning of Sunday, April the 27th, was not a psychotic breakdown,
00:33:09but was a containable and contained emotional disruption.
00:33:15Now, if he's right about both these things, can you really criticize his behavior?
00:33:22Well, if those were the circumstances, then the accusation of negligence would not be justified.
00:33:28But surely all this is irrelevant.
00:33:30According to the boy's mother, on the following evening, Merton was still exhibiting markedly uncontrolled behavior,
00:33:36which is quite inconsistent with your client's claim that the psychotic episode was a contained emotional disruption.
00:33:43Yes. Now, Professor Bonner, what was your professional assessment of the relationship between Mrs. Merton and her son?
00:33:51Well, certainly it wasn't very satisfactory. She had fostered a dependency that was nearly a symbiosis,
00:33:59that is, a merging relationship, in which her son found difficulty in experiencing himself as an independent unit.
00:34:06Her resistance to his being regarded as in any way abnormal was huge.
00:34:10Now, my client agreed with you, Professor, that the boy was very much in need of sustained psychotherapy,
00:34:15and he had arranged just this for Benjamin on the evening before Benjamin confronted his mother in a state certainly far from passive.
00:34:23Now, in view of his mother's attitudes, she might tend to regard Benjamin's excitement and optimism as being signs of mental instability.
00:34:33Might she not?
00:34:34It is possible, yes. However, I must repeat, all the symptoms described to me tally with a clinical picture of a psychotic episode.
00:34:42Ah, yes, yes, yes. As described to you. Right. Thank you, Professor.
00:34:49Professor Bonner, my learned friend has used the word if very extensively, but we mustn't lose sight of the facts.
00:34:57However correctly the accused behaved in telephoning you that night, he did not take your advice.
00:35:03Whatever the conjectured disposition of the witnesses to Benjamin Merton's behaviour,
00:35:07the symptoms described to you led you to conclude psychosis, the result of which was suicide, a gross pathological act.
00:35:16Is all this correct?
00:35:17Yes, that is correct.
00:35:19Thank you, Professor. And does your Lordship have any further questions?
00:35:22Thank you, Professor.
00:35:24There concludes the case for the prosecution, my Lord.
00:35:29You are Michael Patrick Lucas of Seven Fleet Terrace, London, Northwest 8?
00:35:35Yes.
00:35:36And is it correct that you hold a degree in psychology from the University of Manchester
00:35:40and completed a subsequent two-year training at the Sullivan Psychiatric Hospital in Manchester
00:35:44to qualify as a clinical psychologist?
00:35:46Yes.
00:35:47Now, in March 1973, I believe you were invited to give a six-week course of lectures and demonstrations
00:35:52in encounter work to the psychiatric staff of the Sullivan Hospital.
00:35:56Yes.
00:35:57Now, Mr. Lucas, do you believe that the experience that Benjamin Merton had in the marathon group at your house
00:36:03was what led him to commit suicide on the night of April the 28th?
00:36:07No, I do not.
00:36:08No.
00:36:09He had a very powerful emotional experience but a potentially very helpful one.
00:36:12Yes.
00:36:13Can you describe to us, please, what did happen that weekend?
00:36:16He was very quiet for the whole of the first session until the break for sleep on Saturday night.
00:36:20Did he seem withdrawn or anxious?
00:36:22No, he seemed very alert and attentive, very much there, if you know what I mean.
00:36:26Mm-hmm.
00:36:27I got the feeling that he was sort of preparing himself.
00:36:30And then on the Sunday morning, he obviously felt enough trust in the group to open up in a very strong way.
00:36:36Now, what was the sequence of events that morning?
00:36:38Well, he started with a very aggressive verbal attack on Anne Nicholson.
00:36:43Well, I blame myself entirely about Anne.
00:36:46I thought wrongly that she realized that she'd been selected as a surrogate
00:36:50and that when she got over the initial attack, she would be able to utilize the interaction.
00:36:54I had no idea she was going to leave the house.
00:36:56What do you mean by surrogate, Mr. Lucas?
00:36:58Oh, well, Ben had obviously chosen her to represent his mother.
00:37:01That's why I asked him to speak to her and not about her.
00:37:04Then I gave him a scene to act out, playing both the parts of his mother and himself,
00:37:09but not using words, just sounds.
00:37:11He did this with terrific energy.
00:37:14He was actually very funny.
00:37:16He made everybody laugh and he laughed himself, but then he started to cry.
00:37:19And was that when Miss Nicholson started to intervene?
00:37:21Yes, I explained to her that Benjamin must be allowed to go through all these feelings.
00:37:25He clearly wanted to go on.
00:37:26Now, how could you tell that?
00:37:27Well, he immediately asked me if he could work on a dream enactment.
00:37:30What is a dream enactment, Mr. Lucas?
00:37:32It's a technique for re-experiencing dreams in the present, my lord.
00:37:35Several people had done this the day before.
00:37:37I see. Yes, go on, please.
00:37:39He chose a recurring nightmare of his.
00:37:43He was in the desert at night,
00:37:46and a distant wheel was coming towards him faster and faster and getting bigger and bigger.
00:37:50He always woke up very frightened just as the wheel was going to run over him.
00:37:53We asked him if we could work on the dream.
00:37:56Yes, what kind of work do you mean?
00:37:57Well, I suggested that he finish the dream by getting up and knocking the wheel over.
00:38:03Well, this frightened him a lot at first.
00:38:05But then a member of the group said,
00:38:07could he be the wheel and try and push him over in a hand-to-hand pushing exercise?
00:38:12He did this very aggressively and he did succeed in pushing him over.
00:38:15He was very elated by this.
00:38:17He went straight from this into the anger outward exercise that's already been mentioned.
00:38:21That's the physical and vocal expression of anger whilst imagining his mother.
00:38:26Yes, I realize that this technique might sound rather brutal, but it's not the actual parent that's being punished.
00:38:31It's the internalized and often distorted attitude towards the parent.
00:38:36I mean, Benjamin was discharging attitudes of rage towards his mother that he didn't even know he had.
00:38:42This brought about a huge release of tension. He was completely exhausted afterwards.
00:38:46Now, Miss Nicholson described him at this point as being too far gone.
00:38:51She said he lay on the floor whimpering.
00:38:54Well, yes, he did.
00:38:55But I think it was because he'd gone far enough, not too far.
00:38:59I helped him over to a couch and stayed with him until he fell asleep.
00:39:02And did you speak to him the following day?
00:39:04Yes. He phoned me about ten o'clock from Joan Carmichael's flat.
00:39:07Well, she'd put him up because I didn't think it was a good idea for him to be on his own.
00:39:11We made an appointment to meet on Monday at six.
00:39:14And did he keep that appointment?
00:39:16Yes.
00:39:17Yes. What took place at that interview?
00:39:19Well, he'd been very shaken up by his experience on Sunday.
00:39:22We talked for a long time, and I think I managed to reassure him.
00:39:26I said I thought he definitely should have private therapy,
00:39:29and I told him about a psychiatrist friend of mine who does a lot of work with young people.
00:39:34And he agreed to your proposal?
00:39:35Oh, yes. He was very happy and excited about the thought.
00:39:37Now, when he left your house that evening,
00:39:40did you think that he was in what has been described as a perilous state?
00:39:46Well, no, I did not.
00:39:48I wouldn't have let him leave otherwise.
00:39:50He was very tired, but he seemed to me quite calm.
00:39:53Yes.
00:39:54Right. Thank you, Mr. Lucas.
00:40:00Mr. Lucas, did you never consider that the sort of activity that you've been describing
00:40:05might entail any risk for a boy like Benjamin Merton?
00:40:09Well, it did, of course.
00:40:10Everyone in a marathon takes a risk.
00:40:12I mean, that's the nature of...
00:40:13You see, Mr. Lucas, to an outsider, it might seem possible
00:40:15that this group was using Benjamin's needs for their own vicarious gratification.
00:40:20Oh, I don't think you could possibly think that if you'd been there.
00:40:24Miss Nicholson was there, and she thought so.
00:40:27Well, Anne didn't really understand what was happening.
00:40:30Her experience in encounter work had been with a very verbal, quite intellectual group.
00:40:35She'd never seen this sort of work before, and I should have made sure she realized what was going on.
00:40:39Everyone else present was conversant with the techniques.
00:40:42Well, yes. As a matter of fact, everybody there had participated in this sort of exercise before.
00:40:48Except Benjamin, of course.
00:40:50Who was dead.
00:40:53Miss Nicholson left the group frightened and disillusioned.
00:40:56The two non-cult members both casualties.
00:41:00That boy had been encasing himself for years in armor.
00:41:04That weekend he was actually able to make some cracks in the armor for the first time in his life.
00:41:08I know from my talk with him that this gave him a sense of real hope and confidence.
00:41:13Therefore, I repudiate the word casualty.
00:41:15Well, I repeat, Mr. Lucas, that less than 36 hours after making this crack in the armor, as you put it,
00:41:21Benjamin Merton was dead.
00:41:23Now, Professor Bonner has explicitly stated that this group marathon encounter
00:41:28represented precisely the sort of extreme pressure that this boy could not tolerate.
00:41:33But you wouldn't take his advice.
00:41:35I didn't ask him for advice. I asked him for information.
00:41:37Which you say you didn't receive.
00:41:38Which I didn't receive.
00:41:40Well, did you hear him say anything in court today to make you consider the possibility
00:41:45that you were wrong in accepting Benjamin Merton for the marathon?
00:41:48No, not about that.
00:41:49Well, wrong then in not removing him from it once he began to show signs of a psychotic breakdown.
00:41:54Well, I think it's been said enough times by now that I did not think it was a breakdown.
00:41:57I selected Ben for that group because I judged it would be a useful experience for him, and I believe it was.
00:42:02It would not have been useful if I had taken him away just as he was beginning to have the experience.
00:42:07It is part of my profession to make these judgments, and I will go on. Go.
00:42:11Er...
00:42:13It was, er, after hearing Professor Bonner's observation about Mrs. Merton,
00:42:19and hearing her testimony that I do think that I was wrong in letting Ben go home on his own that Monday evening.
00:42:25Well, do I understand that you are blaming Mrs. Merton for this...
00:42:29No, no, please, I don't think blame is a word I'd use at all.
00:42:32Not about me or Mrs. Merton or Professor Bonner or fake come to that.
00:42:35Ben didn't tell me that his mother didn't know about the marathon.
00:42:38It was sprung on her and she obviously couldn't cope with it.
00:42:40Yes, and you could say, Mr. Lucas, the boy couldn't cope with her not coping because of these very cracks in his armour.
00:42:47Well, because you could say somebody had mentioned the marathon to it,
00:42:50because he had to leave school and work at the town hall,
00:42:53because he took an overdose when he was 16,
00:42:55because he was encased in plaster when he was a baby.
00:42:58I mean, you could go back and back and back and still never find the exact place to put the blame.
00:43:02Yes, but, Mr. Lucas, in this case, we're all here because we're required to decide
00:43:06whether any blame in the sense of gross negligence attaches to you.
00:43:11We're not here for philosophical discussion.
00:43:13I'm sorry, my lord.
00:43:14Oh, that's all right.
00:43:16Now, one last point, Mr. Lucas.
00:43:18This psychiatrist friend you were arranging for Benjamin to see,
00:43:22did you contact him?
00:43:24No, I was going to see him on my return to London the next day.
00:43:27Oh, I see.
00:43:29So, we only have your word for it that Benjamin Merton,
00:43:32as part of his newfound equilibrium, had agreed to undergo psychiatry.
00:43:37No further questions.
00:43:39Uh, Mr. Lucas,
00:43:41you told us that Benjamin had said to you in that first interview
00:43:45that he felt that nothing mattered and that life was not worth living.
00:43:49Now, do you think that he was expressing suicidal tendencies?
00:43:53No, I thought he was expressing loneliness.
00:43:55Look, the people who want to work with me and who I want to work with aren't suicidal psychotics.
00:44:00They come to the group because they are feeling alienated and lost.
00:44:04They want to get back some of their real feelings, the feelings we see in children,
00:44:07of joy and zest and proper curiosity and hope about life.
00:44:12We're all so busy trying to keep up to what society calls success that we simply forget just to celebrate ourselves.
00:44:20Now, in the kind of work that I do, we all meet to try and get rid of all that for just a little while.
00:44:25We try to feel our feelings for ourselves and for each other.
00:44:28I'm sorry for having made a speech.
00:44:31I don't honestly believe that what happened to Ben that day was a celebration.
00:44:36Thank you, Mr. Lucas.
00:44:38I think I was the only person he really talked to at the office.
00:44:49Terribly quiet, quiet, shy person.
00:44:53He's just the same age, I mean, he was the same age as my younger brother.
00:44:57I sort of adopted Ben.
00:44:59You saw a good deal of each other, Miss Carmichael?
00:45:01Well, we used to eat our sandwiches together at lunchtime
00:45:03and sometimes we'd go to a film on Saturday afternoons.
00:45:06His mother worked on Saturdays. She, er...
00:45:09You mean she didn't know about your going to the cinema together?
00:45:12Well, I don't think she liked me, you see.
00:45:15Really? Why not?
00:45:17Well, the thing was, I don't think she...
00:45:20Well, anyway, I had these two tickets for the theatre this time
00:45:23and I asked Ben if he wanted to go and he said yes, so I came by for him.
00:45:26Well, I've got this old banger of a car my father gave me.
00:45:29Erm...
00:45:30I'm terribly sorry, I'm a bit nervous.
00:45:32That's quite all right, Miss Carmichael. You take your time.
00:45:35Well...
00:45:37She wouldn't give him a key.
00:45:39I mean, he didn't have one of his own.
00:45:41Well, I was a bit staggered by that, you know.
00:45:44But anyway, I honestly thought she was joking
00:45:46so I said something, well, sort of jolly and supposedly witty
00:45:50and she got quite offended, you know, grim.
00:45:53He kept going on about how it wouldn't be convenient for her to wait up
00:45:57and how she couldn't sleep if the chain wasn't up on the front door.
00:46:00It was all so weird.
00:46:02Ben didn't say anything much.
00:46:05I got quite embarrassed.
00:46:07So, in the end, we didn't go.
00:46:09Yes.
00:46:10Now, tell me, did he talk to you very much about his mother?
00:46:13Well, it was a bit difficult.
00:46:15Neither of us said anything after, well, about that night.
00:46:18And anyway, I always do most of the talking
00:46:20and it didn't seem right about, well, you know, other people's mothers.
00:46:24But then once, well, he did talk about her
00:46:27and about how depressed he gets... got.
00:46:31So, I told him about this group that I go to, Michael's.
00:46:34You mean the marathon group?
00:46:36No, it's a group that meets once a fortnight in London
00:46:39at Michael's place in St. John's Wood.
00:46:41But I've been to two marathons down at Michael's cottage.
00:46:44Now, Miss Carmichael, do you still attend Mr. Lucas's group in London?
00:46:47Oh, yes.
00:46:48Oh, because of what happened to Ben, you mean?
00:46:51To Ben, you mean?
00:46:52Oh, no.
00:46:53And anybody who knows Michael would never...
00:46:54And anyway, I told the solicitor about Ben phoning me that night.
00:46:57Yes, yes, yes.
00:46:58We'll come to the telephone call in a moment, Miss Carmichael.
00:47:01Just for now, would you tell us how Benjamin reacted
00:47:04to your conversation about the group work?
00:47:07Oh, yes.
00:47:08I'm sorry.
00:47:09I'm not very good at this.
00:47:11Well, about a month later,
00:47:16he suddenly said that he'd like to do it too.
00:47:18Be in the group, I mean.
00:47:20I see.
00:47:21Now, on the Sunday morning of the marathon weekend...
00:47:24When Ben freaked, you mean?
00:47:25Freaked, Miss Carmichael?
00:47:26Oh, I think that's what young people...
00:47:28Yes, yes, yes.
00:47:29I know all about freaked.
00:47:30I beg your pardon?
00:47:31I want to know what Miss Carmichael means by freaked.
00:47:34Do you mean that that morning Benjamin Merton had a breakdown,
00:47:37became out of control?
00:47:39Oh, no, you couldn't say that, my lord.
00:47:41Ben was fine afterwards.
00:47:43You could say it was like a breakdown, but not a real one.
00:47:47I see.
00:47:49And, as you say, he was fine afterwards.
00:47:52Now, I understand that you put him up at your flat.
00:47:55What sort of state was he in on Monday morning?
00:47:57Well, he was terribly tired.
00:47:59He told me he hadn't slept much,
00:48:01but he was still very, you know, elated.
00:48:04So I said he could stay at the flat and sleep all day,
00:48:07and I'd say at the office he was ill.
00:48:08Yes.
00:48:09And that evening?
00:48:10He phoned.
00:48:11Mm-hmm.
00:48:12Can you remember what he said?
00:48:13Well, I could hardly understand him, he was so upset.
00:48:17He was crying.
00:48:19He...
00:48:20He said his mother had just told him that his father had been mad when he died.
00:48:28He said he didn't know what to do.
00:48:31He kept asking me if I thought he was mad too.
00:48:34But he couldn't really listen to what I had to say,
00:48:38so I told him to wait by the phone box and I'd come for him.
00:48:41He promised he'd wait.
00:48:42I made him promise.
00:48:43And I drove straight over.
00:48:46And he was gone.
00:48:49Mm.
00:48:50Thank you, Miss Carmichael.
00:48:55Miss Carmichael.
00:48:57Benjamin asked you if you thought he was mad,
00:49:01and yet you say the breakdown he had the previous day was not a real one.
00:49:06Yeah.
00:49:11Now, you describe him as a very quiet person.
00:49:13Was he very different on that Sunday evening?
00:49:16Oh, yes, he was, before he phoned Michael that night.
00:49:19But then he was laughing and talking.
00:49:21He was a different person.
00:49:22He really was.
00:49:23Yes.
00:49:24And on the Monday morning, you say he hadn't slept.
00:49:26Er, elated, you said.
00:49:28Now, no doubt he was also somewhat overstrained and erratic by then.
00:49:32Yes, he was.
00:49:34I was a bit worried about him.
00:49:36But then I knew he was going to sleep all day.
00:49:38Yes, but you don't know if that's what he did.
00:49:42Miss Carmichael.
00:49:44I mean, he may not have slept at all,
00:49:46in which case he would hardly have had any sleep for nearly four days.
00:49:50I mean, for all anyone knows,
00:49:52he went through the day accelerating in his agitation,
00:49:55getting more and more erratic.
00:49:57But he saw Michael that evening,
00:49:59and he told me that Ben was really happy then and calm.
00:50:02He said it was quite okay that he was fine then.
00:50:04Yes, yes, yes.
00:50:05You see, Miss Carmichael, er, Mr. Lucas is the accused in this case,
00:50:08and it's only natural he'd wish to give us the impression
00:50:11he had a calming effect on Benjamin Merton that night.
00:50:13But I'd seen him having a calming effect on him the day before,
00:50:16when Ben was in a terrible state.
00:50:18A terrible state.
00:50:19Yes.
00:50:21Yes.
00:50:22Now, Miss Carmichael, you said you've, er,
00:50:26attended two males since before this one.
00:50:28Had you ever seen anyone behave with such violence then?
00:50:32Well, no, but,
00:50:34Michael, er, we were all asking him to do quite violent things,
00:50:38all at the same time.
00:50:39It was sort of concentrated that time.
00:50:41Yes, and as you say, terrible and violent.
00:50:45Yes, I, er, I have no re-examination.
00:50:49You may leave the witness blocks, Miss Carmichael.
00:50:56I call Dr. Harriet McCausland.
00:51:00You are Harriet Jane McCausland, doctor of medicine and psychiatrist?
00:51:03Yes, I am.
00:51:04And you're on the teaching staff of the Washington School of Psychiatry
00:51:07and deputy director of the Newman Adolescent Residential Unit
00:51:10attached to the National Hospital Bethesda, Maryland?
00:51:13Yes.
00:51:14Dr. McCausland, have you come over to England just for this trial?
00:51:17Yes, I have, my lord.
00:51:18Oh, yes.
00:51:19How long have you known Michael Lucas?
00:51:21Since 1968.
00:51:22And, er, you sponsored him in 1969
00:51:25for a special grant to do a training course
00:51:27at the Washington School of Psychiatry?
00:51:28Yes.
00:51:29He did the course at our group relations centre.
00:51:31Yes, and in the autumn of 1970,
00:51:33you asked Mr. Lucas to assist in a two-month series of groups
00:51:36with the residents of the Newman Adolescent Unit?
00:51:38Yes.
00:51:39Now, Dr. McCausland,
00:51:41what is your professional opinion of Michael Lucas's work?
00:51:45Well, I think he's extremely talented and highly skilled.
00:51:48The work I saw him do at the Newman was excellent.
00:51:51And speaking as a character witness?
00:51:53Well, I could go on for a long time.
00:51:56He's very intelligent, reliable, sensitive,
00:52:00has an excellent sense of humour.
00:52:02You can see I think very highly of him.
00:52:04Why else would I have come all this distance to say so if I didn't?
00:52:07Hmm.
00:52:08Have you seen very much of him since 1969?
00:52:10Yes.
00:52:11I've been to London, I'd say, about six times in the last five years.
00:52:16Michael and I always meet when I'm here,
00:52:18even if it's only just for a flying visit.
00:52:20And you know, of course, that Mr. Lucas is on trial for manslaughter?
00:52:23Yes, I do.
00:52:24And you know of the circumstances?
00:52:25Yes, I've been here throughout the whole trial.
00:52:27Now, Mr. Lucas says that Professor Bonner did not tell him all the professor claims,
00:52:32but let us assume for the moment that he did.
00:52:34Now, is it your opinion that Mr. Lucas should have excluded Benjamin Merton
00:52:38from the Marathon Encounter Group on the basis of the psychiatric history of the boy,
00:52:43which Professor Bonner described in his evidence?
00:52:46No, it isn't.
00:52:47And I'm very conservative about participant selection.
00:52:51Except for hospital work, I think extreme care should be exercised.
00:52:55And I would definitely advocate the exclusion of certain diagnostic categories,
00:53:00which would include psychotics.
00:53:02But from what I understand, this boy has never been labelled clinically psychotic.
00:53:07And would you concur with the opinion that at the onset of Benjamin Merton's intensive experience,
00:53:13he should have been removed from the group?
00:53:15No, I wouldn't.
00:53:16A psychotic-like disruption has to be contained by an extremely skilled leader to be beneficial.
00:53:23And in this case, I'd certainly say it was.
00:53:25You say psychotic-like.
00:53:27Yes, my lord.
00:53:28It's hard to draw lines.
00:53:31A well person in a very powerful emotional state can behave in ways that in a sick person would be psychotic symptoms.
00:53:39As a matter of fact, when we are describing schizophrenia, we often use terms that we use in describing,
00:53:45well, the normal behaviour of babies and little children.
00:53:49As you understand, Dr. McCausland, in this case it is an important issue as to whether or not Benjamin Merton was a latent psychotic.
00:53:55Yes, my lord.
00:53:57In my view it's quite impossible to label the episode as described by the witnesses here as definitely psychotic.
00:54:04Yes, thank you, Dr. McCausland.
00:54:06Yes, Mr. Honeycomb.
00:54:07Now, this series of groups that Mr. Lucas did for you in the Newman Adolescent Unit, Dr. McCausland,
00:54:12did that involve young people who were very disturbed?
00:54:15Oh yes, absolutely.
00:54:17We run the full gamut at the unit.
00:54:19I'd say usually at least one third of the residents have been diagnosed as schizophrenic.
00:54:26So in that work he would have had to deal with some of these psychotic-like disruptions that you mentioned?
00:54:31Indeed he did.
00:54:33The group work we do there can always be counted on to produce some very formidable reactions.
00:54:39And did it seem to you that Mr. Lucas was able to handle these formidable reactions?
00:54:44Yes.
00:54:45His instincts always struck me as being remarkably accurate.
00:54:48Good.
00:54:49Thank you, Dr. McCausland.
00:54:53Dr. McCausland, it was six years ago that you worked with the accused at the Newman Residential Unit.
00:54:59Have you worked together since?
00:55:00No.
00:55:01I wish we had.
00:55:02So, in fact, your professional assessment of them is not based on a very recent experience.
00:55:07That's true.
00:55:08But I have read three published papers of his, all of which impressed me very much.
00:55:13Yes, but at the moment I am concerned with the practical side of the accused work, which, as you say, you have an actual experience for over six years.
00:55:21I have a very high professional regard for a great many people in the therapeutic field whose work I have never seen at all.
00:55:33You see, Dr. McCausland, it strikes me that the profession of group leader is not easily definable. It's not governed by explicit qualifications. Its methods are constantly changing. There is much innovation. Would you agree with that?
00:55:49Yes. In many ways, of course, it's still an experimental field.
00:55:52Yes. And by definition, the experiment is based on trial and error. Now, we are here today to consider whether or not an error has been made. The young man is dead. Now, you have testified that the accused showed the correct responses in dealing with a psychotic-like breakdown.
00:56:10Yes, I did.
00:56:11But that was in a clinical setting, wasn't it? The new and residential unit, as we've heard, is attached to a hospital. Now, the staff there are no doubt all trained psychiatric workers.
00:56:21Yes, they are.
00:56:22Consequently, the situation carries both end safeguards. Skilled clinicians are on hand to intervene if the situation may seem potentially dangerous. I take it there are times when intervention is necessary.
00:56:33Yes, there are sometimes, especially if there seems to be the risk of physical damage. But the Newman is a community of very disturbed young people. They are acknowledged patients who've had a severe enough history to require a physical and a clinical setting. It's an entirely different thing than a group of people who volunteered for a private marathon.
00:56:58Yes, well, we've heard that two years ago, in a clinical setting, this boy, it was a suspected pre-psychotic with schizoid tendencies. We know that in April 27th, in a country cottage, where there was no skilled psychiatric staff to intervene, he, in fact, experienced a great disruption. The following evening, he suffered the altogether unequivocal physical damage of death.
00:57:23But are you going to ask any more questions, Mr. Parsons?
00:57:26No, no further questions, Madam.
00:57:29I assume, Dr. McCausland, that in the frequent meetings you've had over the years with Michael Lucas, you do talk about work together.
00:57:36Oh, incessantly, I'm afraid.
00:57:38So you would be aware if he had radically changed his methods, I mean, taken up any alarming, innovatory techniques?
00:57:44I certainly would.
00:57:45Now, Dr. McCausland, can you tell us if there is known to be a high incidence of gross disturbance occurring as a result of encounter group participation?
00:57:57Well, that's not easy to calculate. Not nearly enough research has been done on this. But there have been a number of very good follow-up surveys. I've studied a good many of them, and in these, the incidence of damage seems to work out somewhere between 0.6% and 2%.
00:58:19Yes, quite a minor incidence, in fact. Now, Dr. McCausland, is it your view that Michael Lucas's conduct in relation to Benjamin Merton was irresponsible or negligent?
00:58:30No, it is not my view. However you look at the case, he didn't do anything wrong.
00:58:37Thank you, Dr. McCausland.
00:58:38Thank you, Dr. McCausland.
00:58:39Thank you, Dr. McCausland.
00:58:42That concludes the case for the defence, my lord.
00:58:46Mr. Parsons, before you start, members of the jury, in the normal event, we would start the closing speeches by low-need counsel straight away.
00:58:55But I want a little time to consider the evidence we have heard. So we will adjourn for 15 minutes.
00:59:00My lord?
00:59:01Yes, Mr. Parsons.
00:59:02My lord, if I am correct in my assumption as to what is in your lordship's mind, I would like the opportunity of addressing you.
00:59:08Very well. The jury may leave the court.
00:59:13My lord, am I right in assuming you are considering directing a verdict of not guilty?
00:59:19Yes, Mr. Parsons. I've been troubled by this case all along.
00:59:24As you know, a charge of manslaughter in a case like this is a very novel one,
00:59:28and then there is the contradictory evidence of Professor Bonner and Dr. McCausland.
00:59:31How can I ask a jury to reconcile the conflict between two diametrically opposed experts of apparently equal standing and reputation?
00:59:40My lord, it's often been done in motoring cases, for example, where mechanical defect is run as a defence.
00:59:45Well, expert evidence about motor cars is in rather a different category from expert evidence about people's minds, don't you think?
00:59:52Well, perhaps so, my lord, but they are both realms of expertise that may be equally alien to a jury.
00:59:58In addition to this problem, the link between the boy's suicide and his experience at the marathon encounter group is virtually broken by the fact that the mother on the Monday evening threw into the scales of his barely balanced mind the information that his father had died in a mental hospital.
01:00:19My lord, it is the prosecution case that the boy had lost any balance of his mind before going home to his mother.
01:00:25Yes, but you have to rely on the mother's evidence for this, and her ideas of when her son was or was not behaving in a normal fashion must be seen against her.
01:00:32Relationship with the boy which has been shown is destructive, possessive, not normal, in fact.
01:00:39My lord, if I may say so, it is entirely a matter for the jury to decide what credibility to give to the mother's evidence.
01:00:45Oh, at this stage it is partly a matter for me.
01:00:47My lord, I cannot agree.
01:00:49My lord, this prosecution was not lightly brought.
01:00:53I'm sure it wasn't, Mr. Parsons.
01:00:55It was brought, my lord, because a suicide has occurred as a result of a man unqualified as a psychiatrist trying to satisfy his own ego as a self-appointed healer at the expense of an emotionally disturbed and vulnerable 18-year-old boy.
01:01:10The accused cavalier refusal to take Professor Bonner's advice that this boy was unfit to take part in such games is evidence of negligence, as was his lack of correct professional behaviour once the boy's breakdown has started.
01:01:24Now, surely, such extreme irresponsibility as this is verging on the criminal. Such practices as this must not go unchecked.
01:01:33You are not addressing a jury now, Mr. Parsons.
01:01:36Perhaps not, my lord. However, it is my submission that it is the jury's task to assess the mother's evidence and to make up their own minds as to the psychiatric evidence.
01:01:47I realise the point at which a judge should intervene as an imprecise one is in a question of degree.
01:01:52But it is my submission, my lord, that this is not a case for such intervention.
01:01:57Yes, well, I understand your point of view. Anything else you want to say?
01:02:00No, thank you, my lord.
01:02:01Mr. Honeycomb, do you want to say anything?
01:02:03No, my lord, I don't think there's any need. Your lordship has made all the points. Rather better than I could, if I may say so.
01:02:09Yes, well, in that case we will adjourn until 10.30 tomorrow.
01:02:13I shall consider the matter overnight and give you my decision in the morning.
01:02:16All stand.
01:02:18Members of the jury, before we adjourned yesterday afternoon, I told you I wanted a little time to consider the evidence.
01:02:30I wanted to consider whether there was sufficiently cogent evidence against the accused for it to be necessary for you to have to deal with it.
01:02:38Well, I have come to the conclusion that there is insufficient evidence for a conviction.
01:02:44Accordingly, I direct you to return a verdict of not guilty.
01:02:48Will you act as foreman?
01:02:49Yes.
01:02:51Will you foreman please stand?
01:02:53Have you reached a verdict on which you're all agreed, and is that a verdict of not guilty?
01:02:57It is.
01:02:58You are discharged and free to leave the court.
01:03:01All stand.
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01:03:31Allão.
01:03:32You've also одноTV.
01:03:33All side.
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01:03:40All right.
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