An Aberdeen woman who was accused of drugging a man and attacking him in his sleep was today ordered to be held at a psychiatric unit under a restriction order.
Carole Farquhar will now have Scottish Government oversight of her case and multi-agency public protection involvement over any release into the community.
Farquhar, 58, was originally charged with attempting to murder the man on March 20 and 21 last year, at a house on Forest Avenue, Aberdeen.
She was accused of repeatedly putting the drugs diazepam and tramadol in drinks and causing him to ingest them.
It was also alleged that after he fell asleep she wrapped cables around his neck and tightened them to his injury and danger of life.
Attempted murder charge dropped
She plead not guilty to the reduced charge and prosecutors accepted a plea advanced on her behalf that she was not criminally responsible by reason of mental illness.
The judge, Lady Haldane, formally acquitted her and granted an interim compulsion order detaining her at a psychiatric hospital.
During a further hearing at the High Court in Edinburgh today, the Crown asked Lady Haldane to make both compulsion and restriction orders in Farquhar’s case.
Defence counsel Lorenzo Alonzi said “a high test” had to be met for the imposition of a restriction order and the court would have to be satisfied it was necessary for the protection of the public from serious harm.
‘Serious, difficult and sensitive case’
Lady Haldane said: “This is clearly a most serious, difficult and sensitive case. The outcome of this hearing will have a profound effect not only on Mrs Farquhar but also her family and friends.
“It is recognised a restriction order, by its very name, is a greater level of restriction and oversight than can be provided by a compulsion order alone.”
Lady Haldane said that after hearing evidence from two doctors she was satisfied that she should pronounce both orders.
Consultant forensic psychiatrist Dr Johanna Brown, 39, said that Farquhar had been diagnosed with persistent delusional disorder which was a mental illness.
She said Farquhar had “very certain beliefs that are not based within reality and have driven her behaviours”.
The psychiatrist said that Farquhar, who is in a medium secure unit called the Orchard Clinic at Royal Edinburgh Hospital, was receiving antipsychotic treatment and was responding well to medication.
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