The immolation of an Indian bus driver in Brisbane, Australia: delusional disorder, not a ‘hate crime’ In the matter of Anthony O’Donohue [2018] QMHC 8, Dalton J

Abstract

In October 2016, a burning liquid was thrown over a bus driver in Brisbane, Australia. It was reported across the world that the 29-year-old bus driver was a Punjabi Indian and that his killing may have been a hate crime. A subsequent independent inquiry found that 50-year-old Anthony O’Donohue, who was charged with murder and other offences, had a long history of mental illness and had been discharged from treatment from a community mental health service four-and-a-half months earlier. In August 2018, the Queensland Mental Health Court found that, at the time of the alleged offences, Mr O’Donohue was of unsound mind and acquitted him of all charges. The case provides an opportunity to consider the decision making of a mental health service in the prelude to a major critical incident. The case also highlights the tension between the principles of patient autonomy and the ‘recovery model’ of mental illness on the one hand and the need to assertively manage persons who have no insight into their serious mental illness and are at risk of harming themselves or others.