A knife-obsessed cannabis addict has been jailed for life for the brutal murders of two school friends.
Tom Palmer, 20, will serve a minimum of 18 years.
A jury at Reading Crown Court rejected Palmer's admission of manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility. It decided instead that he was responsible for murdering Steven Bayliss, 16, and Nuttawut Nadauld, 14, known as T-Wood.
A habitual user of cannabis and a fan of violent horror movies, Palmer butchered the pair with a hunting knife on a leafy footpath near Wokingham, Berkshire, in September 2005.
After the case, Rethink, a mental health charity, called on the Government to fund a nationwide public health campaign warning people of the risks of cannabis use.
Palmer told prison doctors that he had tried, and failed to kick his cannabis habit in the year before the killing. After trying the drug at the age of 14 he was smoking it on a daily basis by the time he reached 15.
He was not smoking on the day of the killings but he told doctors he had been using the skunk form of the drug regularly in the preceding weeks. Doctors told the court the drug had "exacerbated" Palmer's anxiety and the strange auditory and visual hallucinations he reported suffering in the months before the attacks.
Palmer told clinicians that he had attacked the boys when they tried to comfort him as he had a serious panic attack.
Paul Corry, Rethink's director of public affairs, said: "We now know that cannabis can be a trigger for mental health problems and smoking it under the age of 18 can double people's chances of developing psychosis. While it is a terrible tragedy that two young people lost their lives in such a shocking way, homicide involving people with mental health problems is fortunately very rare. The Government must invest in a wide scale public health campaign so that young people know cannabis is not risk-free."
Palmer will serve at least 20 years minus the time he has already served on remand since the killings.
Tom Palmer, 20, will serve a minimum of 18 years.
A jury at Reading Crown Court rejected Palmer's admission of manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility. It decided instead that he was responsible for murdering Steven Bayliss, 16, and Nuttawut Nadauld, 14, known as T-Wood.
A habitual user of cannabis and a fan of violent horror movies, Palmer butchered the pair with a hunting knife on a leafy footpath near Wokingham, Berkshire, in September 2005.
After the case, Rethink, a mental health charity, called on the Government to fund a nationwide public health campaign warning people of the risks of cannabis use.
Palmer told prison doctors that he had tried, and failed to kick his cannabis habit in the year before the killing. After trying the drug at the age of 14 he was smoking it on a daily basis by the time he reached 15.
He was not smoking on the day of the killings but he told doctors he had been using the skunk form of the drug regularly in the preceding weeks. Doctors told the court the drug had "exacerbated" Palmer's anxiety and the strange auditory and visual hallucinations he reported suffering in the months before the attacks.
Palmer told clinicians that he had attacked the boys when they tried to comfort him as he had a serious panic attack.
Paul Corry, Rethink's director of public affairs, said: "We now know that cannabis can be a trigger for mental health problems and smoking it under the age of 18 can double people's chances of developing psychosis. While it is a terrible tragedy that two young people lost their lives in such a shocking way, homicide involving people with mental health problems is fortunately very rare. The Government must invest in a wide scale public health campaign so that young people know cannabis is not risk-free."
Palmer will serve at least 20 years minus the time he has already served on remand since the killings.
0 comments:
Post a Comment