Cannabis use could have caused attack

Cannabis use could have triggered the paranoid psychosis that
caused a 32-year-old woman to attack a nurse with a knife, a court
has heard.

Belinda McCauley was detained in a secure unit under sections 37
and 41 of the Mental Health Act 1983 after admitting she attempted
wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm at the Old
Bailey.

The court was told that McCauley repeatedly tried to stab the
female nurse, who fended her off with a rucksack, in a random
attack on a quiet London street last June.

McCauley said she had heard voices telling her to kill. Dr Manoj
Kumar, who had treated her at the West London mental health trust,
told the court it was possible cannabis had triggered her paranoid
symptoms.

Kumar said: “She did say in the past that cannabis helped her but
then made her paranoid. At the time of this offence she was taking
cannabis.”