Jailed for trying to kill himself

Matthew Pickles was handed a bag of blood-stained clothes, the remnants of an attempt to slash his own wrists, after serving a month's sentence in a Scottish prison.

Mr Pickles's MP, Gordon Prentice, said he would be writing to Scottish Secretary Donald Dewar about what happened to his constituent, whose family lives in Barnoldswick.

He said: "It's a very sad case. It is a matter of great concern to me that someone who should have been treated ended up in prison.

"I shall be writing to the Secretary of State for Scotland to find out exactly what happened.

"Matthew Pickles needed to go to hospital, not to be thrown in the slammer.

"He and people like him with mental problems need professional help from a doctor not from a prison warden."

The Pendle Labour MP said he would press for a review of procedures to deal with the mentally ill in the justice system.

Matthew, 22, who has a long history of severe mental illness, arrived in Edinburgh off the train from Burnley with just £30 in his pocket and with his arms and wrists bandaged from a suicide attempt.

He said: "It's difficult for me to say what I want but I really want to live normally. I just want to live without these feelings that I want to commit suicide all the time."

He has harmed himself scores of times and made several attempts to take his own life, including jumping in front of a train in Burnley. He has been diagnosed as schizophrenic and suffering from a personality disorder. Matthew told staff at Edinburgh's Waverley railway station he was going to throw himself in front of a train. He was arrested for breach of the peace and taken to a police station where he tried to hang himself. He was spotted by an officer and taken to hospital for a check up before being taken back to the cells.

Mental health workers in Scotland have highlighted Matthew's case aS an example of how the justice system in the country is failing mentally ill people.

Michael Howlett, director of the mental health charity the Zito Trust, said: "It's just sadistic. To hand back clothes that are covered in blood from a suicide attempt to a young vulnerable man is nothing short of disgusting."

Ian Harper of the National Scizophrenia Fellowship (Scotland) added: "It is a catalogue of abysmal failure. All the way down the line there have to be questions asked about how this was allowed to happen."

Matthew's grandmother Sheila, of Conway Crescent, Barnoldswick, said: "He needs some help but nobody seems to give him any help. He needs something more than what they've ever done for him.

"He's been in and out of prison and psychiatric units since leaving school but the doctors tell me they can't find anything wrong with him when obviously he's got a serious problem.

"I told them he should have got help when it all started when he was 11 or 12 rather than just letting it go on like this. I think the system has let him down."

Matthew was born in Barnoldswick and attended Gisburn Road Primary and West Craven High schools.

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