Macmillan Held Schizophrenic

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30899, 4 November 1965, Page 3

Macmillan Held Schizophrenic

(N.Z. Press Association) WELLINGTON, Nov. 3.

Medical evidence in rebuttal will be called by the Crown tomorrow in the trial of Daniel Huntwell Macmillan, aged 28, on charges relating to the Auckland Prison riot.

Macmillan has pleaded not guilty to charges that on July 20 he attempted by force to break out of a penal institution, Auckland Prison, with intent to set himself at liberty: attempting to escape from prison, with intent to facilitate the commission of a crime: two charges of assault: and one charge of discharging a firearm. The first four charges are two sets of alternative charges. Macmillan is represented by Mr P. A. Williams and Mr K. Ryan. The trial is before Mr Jus-, tice Hardy Boys and a jury. Mr D. S. Morris is conducting the case for the Crown. Gabriel David Tetro, a medical practitioner, said he came to a definite conclusion that Macmillan (then Philip Western) was suffering from paranoid schizophrenia on June 5. 1964. “I would be quite satisfied in my own mind that he would be suffering from this disease on July 19 and 20 and several years before,” he said.

“I think he' has no moral appreciation. He lives in a fantasy world full of hallucinations.” His Honour: Did his disease on July 19 and 20 make him incapable of knowing that it was morally wrong having regard to commonlyaccepted standards of right arid wrong to hit a prison warder with an iron bar?—He would not have known it was wrong

Mr Morris: I understand he believes he is near to God. correct? —Yes. If he has this illusion could not he just walk out of prison without a mask. Why did he have to hide his face?—l ani not a qualified psychiatrist. I feel it unjust to answer these questions. Laurie Kalman Gluckman, a

member of the Australia and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists, said he formed the opinion that the accused was suffering from paranoid schizophrenia from three interviews in October. During these interviews in Waikeria prison, Macmillan had claimed that attempts were being made to suffocate and to poison him. Macmillan had told him: “By my standards I can justify every action.”

He spoke of a plan to take over the country and said his society was brought about by violence: justice and discipline were just euphemisms and nonsense, said Gluckman. Macmillan said: “1 am above and beyond the law for a special purpose. Referring to another case, accused had said: “If I'm found guilty then others have Conspired to make me look guilty.” When Gluckman referred to fingerprints said to have been found at the scene of the crime Macmillan had replied: “I will not believe or accept this. They could have been drawn or transferred by photography. The whole charge is a conspiracy against me.” Later, said Gluckman, Macmillan told him: “If I had my way I would destroy all banks." Macmillan told him he had many reincarnations, in one of which he was unjustly hanged. He identified the hangman with one of the Auckland prison officers who. he claimed, would be responsible for his annihilation in this world.

Accused had alleged that there was a special electric bulb in his cell in Auckland gaol designed to give electrical vibrations to destroy him. “I am a pacifist, but there are circumstances' where 1 would obey a divine voice and kill,” Macmillan had told witness.

Referring to prison. Macmillan had said: “I would sooner be crucified than coerced into a living death.” Later he said: “I like devastation. You have to destroy to create. All evil should be destroyed. It’s a pity Mount Eden was not made of wood ” Macmillan said he had had a revelation that the gaol would be destroyed. Gluckman said Macmillan,

when questioned about the riots, would make no admission, but agreed to discuss them on witness’s assumption that he was an active participant. Macmillan told him: “I felt it was an evil establishment as soon as I got there. 1 had to devastate it.”

He was asked why did he try to escape. The reply was: “I did not; you do not stay in a state of devastation.” Macmillan said that if he returned to the gaol he would devastate it properly, said Gluckman. He proposed to use either gelignite or an occult technique he was developing.

Macmillan had said he did not expect to be acquitted of the present charges, said Gluckman.

Macmillan said that if prisoners or staff had lost their lives in the prison fire, their nucleus or “pith” would have lived on. It would not have worried him if their bodies had been destroyed. Gluckman said: “I raised the question of his insanity and he became quite emotionally disturbed. He would not have it that he was sick or ill in any way, and firmly believes at this very moment that I am saying what 1 am

saying because he has supernatural powers and has used these.” Gluckman said that from a technical viewpoint Macmillan was totally devoid of judgment, understanding or what was called insight. Witness told Mr Morris that Macmillan thought his actions were right, proper and correct in all respects. Witness agreed Macmillan did not tell him anything about the gun although he asked questions about it.

His Honour asked Gluckman if he (witness) grew a beard and went overseas, where he acted and spoke as Macmillan had to him, would he be able to convince a psychiatrist of equal eminence that he was insane.

Witness said he did not believe he could. John Hall. Deputy-Director of the Division of Mental Health, said he was asked to report on Macmillan’s state of mind by the judge of Macmillan's previous trial, before sentence was passed. He examined him on October 28 in Mount Eden Prison. He had no doubt that Macmillan was suffering from paranoiac schizophrenia. Mr Williams: Can you tell

us whether or not Macmillan was, at the time of these allegations, labouring under a disease of the mind to such an extent as to render him incapable of knowing that these acts were morally wrong having regard to the commonly accepted standards of right and wrong? Witness: I don’t think Macmillan was able to appreciate that acts in connexion with the gaol break were morally wrong.

Witness said he was completely satisfied that there could be no question of Macmillan malingering when he saw him. He could not conceive that any man would be such a good actor as to assimilate paranoiac schizophrenia as well as Macmillan did. Macmillan’s whole attitude was one of disinterest and witness had to coax the information from him.

Henry Rongoman Bennett. Medical Superintendent of Tokanui Hospital, said he had no hesitation in saying that this man suffered a paranoid reaction of the paranoid schizophrenic type: that he was both deluded and hallucinated and a danger to himself and others.