News

A Leeds man who beat a teenager to death more than eight years ago has won the first round of a test case bid for release from one of Britain's highest security mental hospitals.

Michael Pearson kicked and beat a 19-year-old man in Leeds in May 1992. He was convicted of manslaughter by reason of diminished responsibility after he was found to be suffering from a psychopathic disorder.

This week, at London's High Court, he was granted permission to mount a full judicial challenge to the mental health review tribunal's refusal in February this year to sanction his release.

His lawyers argued that placing the burden of proving he was fit for release upon Pearson was a breach of the "fundamental rights of liberty of the subject" under the European Convention on Human Rights.

A spokesperson for mental health charity Mind said: "The Court of Appeal has already declared the burden of proof elements of the Mental Health Act 1983 to be incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights."

Ministers are considering ways to update the Mental Health Act 1983 through the White Paper Reforming the Mental Health Act, published in December last year.