Dr Richard Taylor on life as a forensic psychiatrist: You need a strong stomach and stamina
16 Jan, 2021 08:00 PM
10 minutes to read
Forensic psychologist Dr Richard Taylor. Photo / The Sunday Times/News
The Times
By: Audrey Ward
Richard Taylor tells Audrey Ward what it was like to work with some of Britain s most notorious criminals, from Camden Ripper Anthony Hardy to hate preacher Abu Hamza. Dr Richard Taylor, a consultant forensic psychiatrist, was walking his daughter to school one morning in 2002 when he bumped into a former patient. The man, Eugene, a talented musician in his 40s, waved cheerily.
Taylor had treated Eugene many years earlier after he beat his father to death during a psychotic episode. He had set fire to the body before sticking a meat thermometer into his stomach. When assessing him in prison afterwards, Taylor had asked why he had done that. To see if he was done, I suppose, was Eugene s reply.
A double killer who was told he would never leave jail after murdering his neighbour and a Sunday school teacher had died in prison following a positive Covid-19 test.
David Cook, 74, had been admitted to hospital on December 7 after testing positive for coronavirus at the jail.
Cook, who was one of around 70 prisoners serving a whole life sentence in England and Wales, killed a Sunday school teacher in 1987 and neighbour Leonard Hill, 64, in June 2011.
David Cook (pictured), 74, had been admitted to hospital on December 7 after testing positive for coronavirus at the jail
He was found unconscious in his bed in the healthcare unit at high security HMP Frankland, Brasside, Durham.