Pen killer sent to St Ann’s

A MENTALLY unstable man who killed  a 23-year-old  store clerk over a defective pen was yesterday described as a “menace to society” and sent  to St Ann’s Mental Hospital at the President’s pleasure. Barry Clarke’s lawyer Sophia Chote, reflecting on his mental history, said it was a “tragedy how society treated  mentally ill persons”.

Clarke, 47, was charged with the murder of Summer Charles but was found guilty of manslaughter by the 12-member jury as a result of his mental illness.  Because of the  jury’s finding, trial judge Justice Prakash Moosai was obliged to send Clarke for treatment at St Ann’s Hospital.  But before doing so, Justice  Moosai expressed concern that something was not done before to treat the abnormality of Clarke’s mind and  protect society from him after he committed his first crime. In 1996 Clarke was freed of murdering a man following a no-case submission on  the grounds of self-defence. Before that, he was charged with stabbing another person.

Yesterday the jury found him guilty of the unlawful killing of Charles on  November 1, 1999 at Emdad’s Variety Store on Charlotte Street, Port-of-Spain. State prosecutor Cheron Raphael told the Port-of-Spain Third Criminal Court that Clarke should be sent to St Ann’s Mental Hospital where he could get treatment and society will be protected from him. Chote, instructed by attorney Shastri Roberts, agreed with this recommendation. However, Chote suggested that if at the start  things had been handled differently, Charles would not have had to pay with her life because of her client’s illness. “Its an indictment on all of us on how we treat mentally ill persons,” she said.

Following Clarke’s  arrest  in 1996 he was ordered to  St Ann’s to be examined to see if he was fit  to answer his charge of murder. Unfortunately, observed Chote, “the matter ended there”. Justice Moosai wondered why some sort of a case history was not taken at that time to evaluate Clarke’s “position.” Clarke, who  has a history of mental illness, had been diagnosed as a  paranoid schizophrenic.