01-19-2005, 03:10 PM
Let me starve to death, begs man accused of shooting his daughter
KAREN MCVEIGH
A MAN accused of killing his newlywed daughter is refusing to eat while on remand in prison and insists that he wants to die, a court heard yesterday.
Terry Rodgers, 56, was absent from a Nottingham Crown Court hearing to discuss details of the murder of Chanel Taylor, 23.
She was shot dead in her home on 30 July last year, just weeks after her wedding.
If Rodgers is judged to be mentally competent, the prison authorities have no power to intervene in his decision to refuse food. Should he continue, he is likely to die in Lincoln prison.
He has not eaten since Christmas Eve and has told his lawyer he wants to die without interference.
Stephen Ferguson told the court: "The prison has very real concerns for his health and indeed his life.
"The prison doctor has invited him to sign an advance directive to indicate that as his condition worsens he does not want assistance.
"In essence he wishes to die and to die as quietly as possible without interference."
Mrs Taylor, a hairdresser, was found by her new husband, Lee, with gunshot wounds to the back and head in the terraced house they shared in New Street, Huthwaite.
Rodgers, the former head of a security firm, who is separated from his wife, was living with the couple at the time of the murder.
He was arrested weeks after the shooting in woodland outside Hucknall, Nottinghamshire.
A gun was discovered in the house days after the shooting, which took place seven weeks after the coupleâs wedding in Mansfield.
Mr Ferguson said he was due to visit Rodgers, accompanied by a psychiatrist, in prison yesterday afternoon.
He added: "His condition is now such that we take the view that he cannot be pressed in relation to matters further.
"It may well be the case where medical matters trump legal matters, at least in the short term, if not forever.
"He is currently preoccupied with his burial arrangements and tying up his affairs."
Mr Justice Pitchers asked whether the defendant would be left to die if he was deemed to have the mental capacity to decline medical intervention.
Mr Ferguson replied: "Long gone are the days when that was deemed aiding and abetting suicide.
"I anticipate that various doctors will be considering these matters in the next few days." The judge adjourned the case for a further hearing on 4 February, but accepted that Rodgers may be unfit or unwilling to attend.
It has been established, through a series of court judgments, that prisoners have the right to chose to go on hunger strike if they are judged to be mentally competent.
As long as an individual has, while competent, expressed the desire to refuse food until death, the person cannot be force-fed even if they become incompetent nearing death. There are, however, exceptions, as in the case of the moors murderer, Ian Brady, who was force-fed while on hunger strike because it was judged that he was not in a fit mental state to refuse medical help.
A Home Office spokesman said yesterday: "Any form of food refusal is something that is taken extremely seriously by prison staff. Force-feeding would constitute medical treatment and there must be valid consent."
The most high-profile hunger strikers in recent years were the IRA prisoners held at the Maze prison near Belfast. Their protest, at the British governmentâs refusal to grant them political status, resulted in ten deaths in 1981.
Barry Horne, an animal rights activist convicted of a campaign of arson attacks, died in 2001 after a series of hunger strikes in protest against vivisection.
He had signed an advance directive that prevented doctors from intervening to keep him alive.
KAREN MCVEIGH
A MAN accused of killing his newlywed daughter is refusing to eat while on remand in prison and insists that he wants to die, a court heard yesterday.
Terry Rodgers, 56, was absent from a Nottingham Crown Court hearing to discuss details of the murder of Chanel Taylor, 23.
She was shot dead in her home on 30 July last year, just weeks after her wedding.
If Rodgers is judged to be mentally competent, the prison authorities have no power to intervene in his decision to refuse food. Should he continue, he is likely to die in Lincoln prison.
He has not eaten since Christmas Eve and has told his lawyer he wants to die without interference.
Stephen Ferguson told the court: "The prison has very real concerns for his health and indeed his life.
"The prison doctor has invited him to sign an advance directive to indicate that as his condition worsens he does not want assistance.
"In essence he wishes to die and to die as quietly as possible without interference."
Mrs Taylor, a hairdresser, was found by her new husband, Lee, with gunshot wounds to the back and head in the terraced house they shared in New Street, Huthwaite.
Rodgers, the former head of a security firm, who is separated from his wife, was living with the couple at the time of the murder.
He was arrested weeks after the shooting in woodland outside Hucknall, Nottinghamshire.
A gun was discovered in the house days after the shooting, which took place seven weeks after the coupleâs wedding in Mansfield.
Mr Ferguson said he was due to visit Rodgers, accompanied by a psychiatrist, in prison yesterday afternoon.
He added: "His condition is now such that we take the view that he cannot be pressed in relation to matters further.
"It may well be the case where medical matters trump legal matters, at least in the short term, if not forever.
"He is currently preoccupied with his burial arrangements and tying up his affairs."
Mr Justice Pitchers asked whether the defendant would be left to die if he was deemed to have the mental capacity to decline medical intervention.
Mr Ferguson replied: "Long gone are the days when that was deemed aiding and abetting suicide.
"I anticipate that various doctors will be considering these matters in the next few days." The judge adjourned the case for a further hearing on 4 February, but accepted that Rodgers may be unfit or unwilling to attend.
It has been established, through a series of court judgments, that prisoners have the right to chose to go on hunger strike if they are judged to be mentally competent.
As long as an individual has, while competent, expressed the desire to refuse food until death, the person cannot be force-fed even if they become incompetent nearing death. There are, however, exceptions, as in the case of the moors murderer, Ian Brady, who was force-fed while on hunger strike because it was judged that he was not in a fit mental state to refuse medical help.
A Home Office spokesman said yesterday: "Any form of food refusal is something that is taken extremely seriously by prison staff. Force-feeding would constitute medical treatment and there must be valid consent."
The most high-profile hunger strikers in recent years were the IRA prisoners held at the Maze prison near Belfast. Their protest, at the British governmentâs refusal to grant them political status, resulted in ten deaths in 1981.
Barry Horne, an animal rights activist convicted of a campaign of arson attacks, died in 2001 after a series of hunger strikes in protest against vivisection.
He had signed an advance directive that prevented doctors from intervening to keep him alive.
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