Seemed Like A Nice Boy....

I was interested to hear last night about Brian Blackwell, the young man who butchered his elderly parents, but was sentenced to manslaughter rather than murder because of "diminished responsibility". Apparently the wee lamb was "suffering" from narcissistic personality disorder. Immediately after the killings, he and his girlfriend went on a luxury holiday in America. I must confess that my first reaction was "He must have had a bloody good barrister working for him!".

Many of the occupants of HM Prisons "suffer" from psychopathic personality disorder, but the courts don't seem to see the need to reduce the charges for many of them. From my admittedly limited reading of Blackwell's case, it sounds to me as if he had a comfortable upbringing and is a highly intelligent, but thoroughly evil, individual. He should be serving the full sentence for murder for battering his father with a claw hammer and stabbing his mother 30 times.

Incidentally, features of narcissistic personality disorder include: a grandiose sense of self-importance; fantasies about unlimited successes; the belief that one is "special" and deserving of excessive admiration; a sense of entitlement to things; a lack of empathy; and a tendency to haughty, arrogant behaviour. How many politicians does that list remind you of?