Oxford rapist detained under mental health act (From Oxford Mail)

Oxford rapist detained under mental health act

9:50am Wednesday 6th February 2013 in News

A RAPIST with schizophrenia has been detained under the mental health act after he was found to be unfit to stand trial.

William Benn, 44, will now spend an indefinite period in the Oxford Clinic, in Littlemore.

On January 24 last year he raped a 37-year-old woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, outside O’Hanlon House homeless shelter in Luther Street, Oxford. He was found unfit to stand trial in December last year, but a jury still heard the evidence and decided he had committed the crime he was accused of.

Benn, from Oak Hall, Northumberland, but currently homeless, was not well enough to appear in Oxford Crown Court on Monday to hear his fate.

He has now been made the subject of a hospital order and a restriction order, both made under the Mental Health Act 1983. The orders are made to protect the public from serious harm and last for an indefinite length of time.

Passing sentence Judge Gordon Risius said a copy of his judgment should be given to the defendant in his absence.

He said: “Your doctors agree that you are still suffering from a mental disorder and I am satisfied with what they say, that your mental disorder is of a degree that you should be treated in hospital.”