Beverly Allit, 39, who had killed four child patients and injured nine and received 13 life sentences in 1993, has had her application for early release on grounds of mental illness turned down by a High Court in England. Allitt was known as “The Angel of Death”. According to Mr. Justice Stanley Burnton, she should serve the minimum 30 years, as ruled by the trial judge at Nottingham Crown Court in 1993.
Allitt had gone on a killing spree – in a period of some months she killed and maimed her child patients by injection them with insulin. During the trial it was alleged that Allitt suffered from Munchausen Syndrome (By Proxy) – a mental illness where the patient harms himself/herself or others in order to gain attention. However, the diagnosis was rejected by the judge – a subsequent inquiry also rejected the diagnosis.
Burnton explained that the relatives of the victims also received a life sentence from which “there is no remission, no release on license”. He added that the impact of the offences does not require to be described and could not be exaggerated “young lives were cut short at their inception. The offences to the children took place in what should have been – and what their families must have believed to be – a place of safety.. ..the offender made it into a place of extreme danger. Each of the offences is an immense personal tragedy for the family concerned.”
What is Munchausen Syndrome?
Munchausen Syndrome, also known as Hospital Addiction Syndrome, is a psychiatric disorder, in the class of factitious disorders. The patient feigns disease or psychological trauma in order to gain sympathy and/or attention to themselves. The patient either provokes the symptoms or fakes them.
A person with Munchausen Syndrome will either embellish or create symptoms of illnesses in themselves or others (see last paragraph) – their aim is to attract attention, an investigation, treatment, or/and comfort and sympathy from health care professionals. There have been cases in which the affected person’s knowledge of medicine is such that they are able to produce symptoms that trigger numerous needless operations.
A person with Munchausen Syndrome is not a Hypochondriac. The Munchausen Syndrome affected person knows he/she is exaggerating or creating the symptoms, while the Hypochondriac really believes he/she is ill.
Munchausen Syndrome is when the patient harms himself/herself to gain attention or sympathy. Munchausen Syndrome By Proxy is when the patient harms another person to gain attention and/or sympathy.
Written by – Christian Nordqvist