Doctor who killed mother loses bid to relax Royal Court controls

Tuesday 18 January 2022

A doctor who stabbed his mother to death in 2019 has failed in his bid to loosen the control of the Royal Court over his level of freedom.

On Tuesday, Andrew Charles Nisbet (43), who has autism, appeared in Court via videolink from a secure specialist centre in Northampton, where he is held by an ongoing treatment order, which the Court reviews every nine months.

Nisbet killed his mother Pamela in her kitchen in St. Peter on 6 August 2019. There had been an ongoing dispute about Nisbet living in an annex of the property. 

The clinical radiologist, who has Asperger’s Syndrome and a suspected personality disorder, admitted to manslaughter on the basis of diminished responsibility and was sentenced in August 2020.

The second nine-month review took place in the Royal Court this week, where Nisbet’s lawyer, Advocate Rebecca Morley-Kirk, made an application for clinicians treating the doctor, who is now struck off, to have the power to authorise unescorted leave from the centre without having to first get the approval of the Court.

This was opposed by the Crown, which argued that it would result in the Court losing a key part of the supervisory function it had determined at sentencing.

Last April, at the first nine-month review, Nisbet was moved from a secure mental health facility in Essex to St. Andrew’s Hospital in Northampton, which specialises in autism.

Giving evidence to the Court this week, the clinician with responsibility for Nisbet at the hospital, Dr Richard Burrows, said that he was currently allowed unescorted leave within the grounds of the centre and escorted leave in Northamptonshire, including visiting nearby shops, pubs and the library. 

Pictured: Advocate Rebecca Morley-Kirk represented Nisbet on Tuesday.

He cannot, however, consume alcohol.

The grounds are extensive, Dr Burrows said, and Nisbet can walk around for up to three hours at a time. They are open to the public and there is a shop and café, where he can buy food, gifts and coffee.

So far, Nisbet has made 200 unescorted walks around the park and 500 escorted visits around the town. 

No significant concerns had arisen and Nisbet had recently moved from medium-secure to low-secure accommodation, Dr Burrows said.

Advocate Morley Kirk said that Nisbet specifically wanted to travel to Edinburgh to visit his two young children. This, she said, could only take place with the approval of his medical team and would have to be sanctioned by the UK Ministry of Justice and the Secretary of State for Scotland.

It would be a staged process, she said, with Nisbet travelling under escort. The first meeting would be in an eatery with those supervising Nisbet staying with him.

Subsequent visits would also be supervised, she proposed, although the escort(s) would stay outside the children’s mother’s home, while Nisbet was inside.

Nothing would take place without the full approval of medical staff and UK officials but, she argued, it was not necessary for the Royal Court to retain its supervision, which reduced the flexibility of decision-making in Northampton. 

The Crown, however, argued that the Court would be giving up too much control, which the sentencing court had introduced to protect the public and family members. 

Crown Advocate Matthew Maletroit said: “The defence application is a dramatic change from the status quo.

“Part of the order was to give the Court judicial oversight to monitor the defendant and ensure that it has ultimate control over his freedoms and any planned eventual release into the community.

“If it sanctioned unescorted leave, the Court would diminish its judicial oversight”.

Commissioner Julian Clyde-Smith, who was sitting with Jurats Charles Blampied and Elizabeth Dulake agreed.

However, the Court did vary the restrictions attached to the treatment order to allow Nisbet to travel unescorted into Northamptonshire, providing the doctor overseeing his care agreed it was for Nisbet’s own health and safety, the safety of others, or as part of his treatment. 

Pictured top: Pamela Nisbet, who was killed by her son, Andrew Nisbet, in 2019.