Mr Giles despite his superior intellectual abilities in some areas failed academically and socially at school. He appears never to have made the transition from school to either work or further education. Similarly his functioning and interests seem not to have changed much over the last decade. If anything, there is a suggestion of a decline in his functioning. In his teens he did have periods of working in unskilled occupations and having sexual, if not particularly close, relationships with women of his own age. In recent years he has lived the life of a recluse in a bedroom in his mother's house. It does not appear he even use the social media opportunities available on the internet.
There are, in Mr Giles, indicators of considerable psychological and social problems. He has resorted to self-harm in the form of cutting his torso over many years. He has a history of suicidal preoccupations and an attempt.
More dramatic is his sense of being separated from other people and about the possibility of any true connection. This is not, he says, based on a sense of superiority to others, nor overt fear of them. The isolation he feels stems from an inability to maintain any sense of being able to understand others or to feel understood, by others.
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... Mr Giles' eccentric interests, declining functions (from a very low starting base) and oddities of speech and emotional responsiveness raise the possibility of a disorder in the schizophrenic spectrum. I note Mr Newton considered him to have a 'schizoid personality disorder'. This is understandable as he does have some of the features described in the DSM5 category. The alternative would be the WHO International Classification of Diseases category of a schizotypal disorder. This is the less dramatic end of the schizophrenic spectrum in which obvious hallucinations and delusions are absent or marked, but in which there is the sense of being cut off from others, vague and often pseudo-philosophical preoccupation, declining interpersonal and social functioning and impairment of common sense and prudence.
The court may conclude that given Mr Giles is far more intelligent, older and knew the victim that he is more likely to have played the lead role in the killing. On the basis of what was found on Mr Giles' computer they may also consider the killing to have been an acting out of a fantasy or plan.
Should this be the situation it would raise concerns about the risk of a recurrence of such violence. The usual risk assessment tools and approaches would probably rate Mr Giles as having a low risk of reoffending. He has no prior criminal history. He has no history of threatening, violent or antisocial behaviour. He does not have marked psychopathic traits. He does not use or abuse either drugs or alcohol. The risk might be considered higher, however if he carried out a planned attack which had been generated over a long period of reflection and fantasising. Such crimes are rare. ...
One might speculate about long held resentments towards the victim based on what may have occurred when they lived together. Equally it is possible that Mr Giles has lived so long cut off from his own world that he lost a sense of the reality and implications of acting on murderous fantasies. Mr Giles is a highly intelligent man who has never been able to use his abilities effectively either in education or relationships. If he were to find an outlet in real intellectual attainments rather than pseudo-philosophical ruminations, this might make him less alienated from others. If he were to learn to interact with others and value their company this would, in my opinion, reduce any future risk of violence. There was some evidence in the interviews that he has, perhaps for the first time, made effective contact with at least two or three fellow prisoners. The very fact of being forced out of his bedroom into contact with others seems to have been beneficial. If Mr Giles has a disorder in the schizophrenic spectrum, as I suspect, he may become more withdrawn and eccentric as time passes, or with luck improve in these areas. Unfortunately the former is most likely. Should he deteriorate further it would be a tragedy for him but would reduce any risk there may be of violence towards others if not himself.