He must have been overpowered by 30 armed policemen. After the murder, he pretended to be Tarzan [FRAGMENT OF THE BOOK]

Richard Taylor was a forensic psychiatrist in Great Britain. On his way he met Daniel Joseph – a large man who brutally murdered his friend and attacked his neighbor. This case, however, had a further bottom. Daniel was considered a “gentle giant”. Why did the tragedy happen?

1. Daniel Jacob dreamed of becoming a professional wrestler. He started training and gained muscle
2. With his dream crushed, Daniel lost control of himself. This led to tragic events that did not necessarily have to happen
3. Richard Taylor shared the story of Daniel Jacob in his book How Man Becomes a Murderer
4. More information can be found on the Onet homepage

He killed his friend. Then he pretended to be Tarzan

At around 7.45am on Thursday, January 22, XNUMX-year-old Daniel Joseph kicked his friend Carla Thompson’s door open. He broke into the room where the woman was sleeping and dragged her out by the hair. He began brutally beating Carla while demolishing the apartment. He hit the victim’s head on the heater and the doorframe. He kicked her all over her body, including her head. At one point he tried to set her hair on fire, but to no avail. Then he tied a tow rope around her neck, dragged her out of the apartment and dragged her to the parking lot under the building. There, he smashed the windows of several cars with a stick, then threw a brick at the kitchen window of 53-year-old Agnes Erume. Then he broke into her apartment and dragged her up the stairs to the parking lot. He placed it next to Carla and tied both women by the necks. Even though they were already unconscious, the attacker continued jumping and kicking on them. Finally, policemen arrived at the scene. Daniel, standing over the unconscious women, then assumed a position associated with the martial arts of kung-fu. Police officers used tear gas for combat, but it did not bring the expected results. Officers, having called for reinforcements, began approaching a man who jumped on the hood of the nearest car and began to beat his chest “just like Tarzan.” After a while, he jumped to the ground and threw at the policemen what appeared in his arm. Only after 20 minutes they managed to overpower him and put him in a police car.

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Carla Thompson, whose attacker inflicted more than 50 wounds, died 21 hours later. Doctors did not give Agnes Erume a chance to survive, but Agnes Erume managed to survive the critical moment. Fortunately for herself, she didn’t remember at all how the attack had happened. Usually, after a murder, the arrested person spends the night at the police station, then in the morning he is brought before the justice of the peace, who will send him to a category B prison, where he may undergo a psychiatric examination. However, Joseph’s case was unusual from the start.

The rest of the text is below the video.

The police were called in to incapacitate the patient

Sylvia (duty nurse, editor’s note) stated that the patient was very agitated and that no arguments appealed to him. She suggested that I go into the room with the Rapid Response team and apply a quick sedation. Rapid sedation is reserved for emergency situations when the patient’s safety and health are at risk. Now we were dealing with this kind of accident. I asked for a standard sedation kit: this included a butterfly needle, an alcohol-soaked medical swab, two XNUMX ml syringes and a couple of vials of diazemuls (a milky white liquid diazapam substitute that is no longer used in British psychiatric hospitals), and haloperidol, an antipsychotic drug administered either intramuscularly or intravenously, the latter being the preferred method of application in those years. We then informed the paramedics (called from other wards) about the plan.

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Incapacitation is fatally associated and its use must be recorded each time (preferably on the recording from surveillance cameras) and then assessed. The purpose of using direct coercion measures is to incapacitate the patient in a planned manner, safe for him and not affecting his dignity. The duration of the incapacitation application is limited to a few minutes – this is the period that must be sufficient to administer the appropriate medications and place the patient in isolation. Before we could enter the room where Joseph was staying, two nurses, tasked with observing the patient, ran out and slammed the door behind them. Only then did I look inside through the window. Joseph was a giant – a muscular young man two meters tall. The moment I saw him, he was struggling with a wooden bench, trying to tear one of the rails. He coped with the brass screws without any problems and after a while he started planking the unbreakable glass protecting the TV set in the wall recess. There was a fear that he might hurt himself. But at the same time, perhaps everyone was more troubled by another thought; that the patient could get out of the room and attack us.

At that moment, the police sirens were heard and three vans of the Territorial Support Group (TSG), i.e. special police forces dedicated to suppressing riots, drove up to the building. When I left the parking lot, the officers were getting ready for action, putting on combat equipment. The sergeant in charge of the unit informed me that they had already been called to the detainee twice – the first time at the time of his arrest, the second when Joseph began to demolish the basic security psychiatric unit from which he was brought to us. Behind the riot control vans, a police car and another van were parked, from which a policeman with a trained dog and two armed officers emerged. Each of them was equipped with a Glock pistol and a 5 mm Heckler & Koch MP9 submachine gun. My face must have been worried, because the sergeant rushed to explain, “Even if he manages to get through us, these two will stop him.” It was already clear at this stage that this was a serious situation. (…)

It took 30 men with helmets and shields

After a while, a group of approximately 30 large policemen from special forces gathered around the doctor. The men were already in full combat gear: on their heads they wore helmets with visors, protectors on their legs, and in their hands they carried shields. David Mottershaw looked at the policemen’s faces and said in his own straightforward manner, “This guy is two meters tall. He is a wrestler and a bodybuilder. And at the moment he is completely freaking out. When he sees you, he’ll probably think you want to kill him. He’s deaf, so getting into discussions with him is just a waste of time. Just hit him with your shields and knock him down. We’ll give him some sedatives, and then we’ll take care of ourselves. I saw the policemen thin their faces. It wasn’t like the actions they were used to. It was clear that they were entering a foreign territory. (…)

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Police officers from the TSG battle group entered the building through the wide-open double doors like a phalanx of Roman legionnaires and stopped in front of the hall where Joseph was raging. A nurse was waiting there with a key. After a short countdown, the door was opened. The policemen rushed inside, using shields. Apparently they forgot Dr. Mottershaw’s advice because they were shouting “Get down!” The mere sight of stormtroopers in combat gear must have been terrifying, because Joseph was incapacitated after a while. There were a few more screams, then strangled groans. Finally, from inside the room, came a shout: “Doctor!” The patient was lying on the ground, his muscular arms were chained on his back by two pairs of handcuffs. I knelt beside him to give the injection. (…) After a while, Joseph was sleeping like a baby, and the nurses monitored his heart rate and breathing. I left the room to discuss the next steps with Dr. Mottershaw and the commander-in-chief of the police action. – How long will he sleep, Doctor? The policeman wanted to know. – Hard to say. Diazemuls should work for 40 minutes to an hour. – And what next? What’s the plan? “Agreed to be admitted to Broadmoor,” I explained. – Can we get him there now? The commander made sure. – Yeah, there’s a bed waiting for him in Luton. The guards at the gate will let us in. Our task is to get him there safely. “All right,” replied the commander. – We’ll get him on the signal to Broadmoor. I will give you a TSG escort and a car with armed officers from emergency departments in case the patient wakes up. (…)

We rushed at breakneck speed, at a speed of 130–140 km per hour, so we were reaching the speed limit for ambulances. A few days earlier, I had to travel from Bedlam to Broadmoor for a seminar there, and it took an hour and a half to travel – but now we only needed 40 minutes to cover the same distance. The gate swung open and we drove into the courtyard, parking in front of the emergency room. Paramedics took Joseph, still asleep, from the ambulance on a stretcher and handed him over to the paramedics of the mental hospital. (…)

Daniel Joseph was deaf. He dreamed of becoming a wrestler

The next morning, new information about Daniel Joseph was released, which allowed for a more complete picture of the incident. It turned out that the man was deaf from birth. As he dropped out of his education, he did not manage to acquire sign language, which caused serious communication problems. The report of the investigating commission included a detailed history of Joseph’s life as well as his contacts with psychiatrists both before and after the killing of Carla. He was diagnosed with bipolar disorder as a child, but people who knew him at the time described him as a very nice and friendly boy. His physical conditions made him a gentle giant, much liked by his peers. Fascinated by wrestling, he wanted to become a world star in this field of entertainment. Thanks to regular visits to the gym and a proper diet, he managed to sculpt an impressive musculature. His figure did not differ much from the most famous wrestlers.

Shortly before the attack on Carla, he began a psychotic episode in which these unrealistic fantasies reached the power of delusions – Joseph believed that he would be able to cure his deafness by willpower, that he would now live in the world of hearing people and would be accepted as a World Wrestling contestant Federation (WWF). One evening he packed his things into a small travel bag, took his passport and headed to the London Arena, where the WWF gala was happening. He hoped he would be able to join the American wrestlers who would take him with them to the USA. However, he was brought home by security guards. There he became angry, accusing members of his family that they had prevented him from going to the United States. The situation quickly escalated and reached the point where Joseph threw a fragment of a curb against the window of his family house. The police were called and the man was examined by psychiatrist Dr. Peter Hindley. It was then that Joseph was hospitalized for the first time.

He would later fall victim to poorly coordinated cooperation between the healthcare of the deaf and the care of psychiatric patients. The commission subsequently set up to investigate his case revealed a whole series of problems in this respect; Attention was also paid to the insufficient availability of mental health specialists who speak sign language. After another psychotic episode, Joseph moved to a different sector in the south of London, where he was to be cared for by another facility. He was accommodated in a hostel for people with disabilities, but did not stay there long.

During this period, he became friends with Carla Thompson, an alcoholic and drug addict after withdrawal (who may have struggled with mental health problems in the past). A woman who experienced religious conversion sometimes let people addicted to alcohol or struggling with mental illnesses spend the night in her studio apartment. Unfortunately, as it turned out later, she persuaded Joseph to stop pharmacotherapy and turn to prayer. In retrospect, it would turn out to be a fatal mistake that she had paid for with her life.

Before Carla’s murder. The experts did not notice the symptoms

Before the tragedy happened, Joseph spent several weeks in Carla’s apartment sleeping on the couch. During this period, he was visited by employees of the local mental health clinic concerned about his condition. His condition was assessed (which was made difficult by the late arrival of the sign language interpreter, who, as it turned out, had been given the wrong address). The report on the visit included information that the patient’s living conditions were not the best – the studio apartment was untidy and dirty. Joseph moved to another friend’s apartment for a night or two, then returned to Carla. Around 21 p.m. there was an argument between the landlady and her tenant about whether the woman with whom he had spent the previous night could have become pregnant. According to the commission’s report, they spoke for the last time before the attack. After the homicide, after the riot police finally overpowered Joseph, he was handcuffed and handcuffed and transferred to the Brixton Police Station. There he was met by a doctor who placed wet bandages on his handcuffed wrists. The patient who communicated with the doctor through a sign language interpreter gave him the impression of restless and agitated.

As the situation was unusual, the experienced Commissioner Sue Hill was summoned, who quickly realized that although the detainee had committed serious acts, he was at the same time a sensitive young man who needed help. Commissioner Hill testified to the committee afterward that Joseph seemed utterly terrified of her. It was decided that instead of questioning or accusing him, he should be transferred to hospital as soon as possible. Several psychiatrists were called to look for one who would be willing to go to the police station. Finally, the acting physician on duty in Maudsley, who specialized in there (one rung below the consultant in the medical hierarchy), took pity. He was caught on the phone while driving his car to work. He promised to appear in the detention center on the way. After examining the patient, he recommended that under Chapter Two of the Mental Health Act he be transferred to the Maudsley Psychiatric Hospital for further diagnosis.

Joseph was placed in a solitary confinement unit in a ward with a basic level of security, intended for severely disturbed patients (in industry slang, such rooms are called intensive care units). Despite the efforts of the staff, accustomed to aggressive and problematic patients, Joseph’s behavior escalated to such an extent that it was necessary, for the second time, to call for help from the police officers from TSG. He was then transferred to the Denis Hill Intermediate Security Unit – and that’s where I came across him. (…)

This murder didn’t have to happen. The system was to blame

After resuming pharmacotherapy, positive changes in the patient’s behavior were quickly noticed. One more incident of aggression took place, after which the man again became the amiable and friendly young man he had been before the attack. Joseph’s pre-murder treatment was the focus of four local investigations and a public inquiry. It was agreed that the boy experienced a relapse of bipolar disorder, which was responsible for his delusions of size and his agitated, aggressive behavior. The scarcity of sign language-speaking mental health professionals and problems with transferring patient care between multiple facilities, which is a frequently recurring theme in homicide investigations, was highlighted.

The case of Joseph prompted the presentation by the committees investigating her of a number of recommendations regarding the psychiatric treatment of deaf people. The activities of the commission were aimed at improving the functioning of the health service, and this way of thinking was typical of the late 90s. Twenty years later, the location of mental health care is as follows: too much fragmentation of the local structure of psychological and psychiatric support, under-financing, liquidation of hospital beds provided for short-term treatment.

As a result, we are dealing with a situation in which, despite the efforts of commissions investigating murders and suicides committed by mentally ill people, despite the decreasing total number of homicides, the rate of murders committed, for example, by schizophrenics remains constant. All indications are that many of the conclusions that had to be drawn from the cases examined by the committees have been completely ignored or forgotten. In view of the increasing pressure to cut costs in psychiatric care, more beds in local psychiatric hospitals are being closed. It is in this type of facility that, if he had arrived at the right moment, Daniel Joseph could have obtained the necessary help in a crisis. Patients today are very often deprived of this possibility.

The fragment comes from the book “How a man becomes a murderer” by Richard Taylor (Feeria Publishing House).