§ 44. Mr. ROWLANDSasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether his attention has been called to the case of John Davitt, who was charged at the Dartford Police Court on the 21st July with acting as a pedlar without a licence; whether Davitt was dealt with as being of unsound mind; whether it is only the man's political eccentricities which gave the prison doctor the impression that he was insane; and whether it is his intention to have the man further examined medically?
§ 56. Mr. WEDGWOODasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether his attention has been called to the case of John Davitt, of Dartford, who has been, or is, in danger of being sent to a lunatic asylum on the recommendation of the prison doctor for expressing views inimical to the present state of society; and, if so, will he have this man's ease inquired into by an independent doctor before he is certified as insane?
§ Mr. McKENNAOn this man being charged before the Dartford justices on the 17th of this month, it appeared to them doubtful whether he was of sound mind, and he was accordingly remanded for medical observation. The medical officer of Maidstone Prison (who is not a Civil servant) considered him insane; on the 22nd, another doctor also certified him insane, and an order for his detention as a lunatic was accordingly made by a magistrate specially appointed to act under the Lunacy Acts. The man is 723 detained in Barming Heath Asylum, where his mental condition will receive constant attention.
§ Mr. WEDGWOODIs my right hon. Friend aware that this man merely expressed extreme Socialist views, and are the magistrates and doctors of this country going to consider anybody a madman who expresses Socialist opinions?
§ Mr. McKENNAI do not know what evidence was before them. My hon. Friend ventures to declare positively that the sole ground on which this man was found to be insane was that he expressed Socialist views. The evidence which I have before me is not of the same kind.
§ Mr. WEDGWOODThe evidence which I sent to the right hon. Gentleman was of that kind.
§ Mr. ROWLANDSIt seems a very curious thing that a man should be sent to an asylum in these circumstances, and I would ask the right hon. Gentleman whether he would give special attention to the matter and ask for a report from the medical officer of the institution to which the man was sent?
§ Mr. McKENNACertainly I will.
§ Mr. WEDGWOODWill the right hon. Gentleman have an examination made by an independent official, not by the medical officer of the institution, but by a doctor of the man's own choice?
§ Mr. McKENNAHe has already been examined by an officer provided by the prison authorities who is not a Civil servant and by another independent doctor, and both of them found him to be insane.