New Zealand

Drug addict gets 'Golden Bay' treatment


DAVID CLARKSON







Last updated 16:06 10/12/2013







































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A Christchurch judge has allowed a 22-year-old woman to continue with alternative therapy and counselling in Golden Bay that has got her off the methadone programme ahead of her sentencing for arson.

Community Probation's pre-sentence report expressed concerns that electronic monitoring on home detention was not possible for a sentence in Golden Bay for Cheyanne Maree Crocker.

Probation was also concerned about her "attitude of entitlement", but Christchurch District Court Judge Alistair Garland noted the progress she has now made to rehabilitate herself in spite of an unpromising start.

Crocker had given an undertaking that she would go through with rehabilitation, since her guilty pleas to arson and attempted arson in March. She had admitted damaging a Christchurch City Council residential property by fire, but there had been no danger to anyone.

She had walked out of a Department of Corrections programme within hours of it starting, and also made an early exit from the St Marks programme in Blenheim.

Since then she has settled in with a family - a couple and two children - in Golden Bay where people had welcomed and supported her.

Judge Garland said she had then made remarkable progress to turn her life around, after becoming interested in alternative therapies and methods of personal development.

She had undergone therapy as a recovering drug addict, and had made the decision to wean herself off methadone, which had also succeeded.

She had become involved in the local community including taking part in a weekly craft market. These personal development and recreational activities provided a basis for her to develop "pro-social supports", said the probation officer.

Defence counsel Craig Ruane had urged intensive supervision and community work rather than imprisonment, since home detention was not available in the area. He accepted that she had a "prickly" nature in her dealings with authority.

Judge Garland agreed with that sentence, even though the offending involved a charge of arson. But he warned Crocker not to breach the sentence, and to work on her attitude.

He sentenced her to intensive supervision for two years, 400 hours of community work, and ordered her to undergo rehabilitation and counselling as directed. Some of the community work may be converted to training. Judge Garland will also monitor her progress during the sentence with regular reports.

"That's all. Good luck," he told her.

Coroner floats DHB changes


CATHIE BELL







Last updated 16:21 30/01/14








The coroner has recommended changes to Nelson Marlborough District Health Board processes after a Blenheim man died when a miscommunication between his doctors meant he kept taking risky medicines.

Craig William Perham, known as Buck Egan, was found dead in his bed in Blenheim on the morning of February 2, 2012.

In her decision published yesterday, coroner Carla na Nagara said Mr Egan died from cardiac arrhythmia, secondary to methadone and amitriptyline use, with end-stage liver failure as an underlying condition.

Mr Egan was prescribed methadone for chronic pain, and was taking amitriptyline at the time he died, even though the hospital doctor looking after him had intended that medication be stopped two and a half months earlier.

"This anomaly appears to have been due to a miscommunication and/or misunderstanding between hospital doctors and Addiction Services doctors as to the management of Mr Egan's medication regime."

Methadone increases the risk of cardiac arrhythmia, and that is made worse with amitriptyline.

However, Ms na Nagara said the extent to which the amitriptyline increased the already-present risk could not be definitively established.

At the coroner's court hearing on Mr Egan's death in October, Nelson Marlborough Addiction Services clinical leader Michael Haskew told Ms na Nagara that new protocol guidelines had been developed to ensure this miscommunication between doctors did not happen again during the shift from paper-based records to electronic records.

Ms na Nagara said the district health board had taken appropriate steps to reduce the chances of a similar thing happening again.

However, she recommended the DHB also ensure the guidelines stated that hospital clinicians must contact the Addiction Service by either fax or email on the day patients are discharged to confirm the patient's medication regime.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/marlborough-express/news/9667326/Coroner-floats-DHB-changes

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/9712923/I-didn-t-want-to-kill-Guy-I-miss-him-already





















'I didn't want to kill Guy. I miss him already'


DAVID CLARKSON



MURDEROUS INTENT?: The Crown will try to prove Lucille Sarah Scollay had murderous intent or knew her actions were likely to cause death.




"One stupid thought and I killed him. I loved him. Why did I do it?" said a distressed Lucille Sarah Scollay when she was with police in the hours after she had stabbed her husband to death.

Constable Barbara Morse said Scollay, 45, was distressed, crying and on her hands and knees when Morse arrived at the Edgeware Rd scene at 3.10am on February 10 last year.

Guy Christian Scollay had been stabbed about 15 minutes earlier.

Scollay denies the charge of murdering him.

Her defence counsel, Rupert Glover, has told the trial in the High Court at Christchurch that Scollay accepted the only possible verdicts were guilty of murder or manslaughter.

Morse this morning quoted Scollay as saying: "I killed him. Oh God. Oh God. I'm so sorry, Guy. What the f... happened? I don't believe it."

Morse said Scollay continued to be distressed and tearful and talked constantly in an interview room at the police station.

Scollay had said: "I don't know how I did it. It's wicked, just wicked.

"My poor son [Louis Scollay, then aged 19, who was at the house at the time]. How am I going to face anybody after this. It's just too heinous."

Scollay had said she did not mean to kill her husband but just wanted things to change, Morse said.

"I loved him but I could not help him. I just destroyed everything."

She had also said: "I just felt trapped, helpless – that's not a defence, is it?"

The trial has been told that the couple had been married for 20 years, but Guy Scollay had been debilitated with fear of outdoor spaces, apparent anxiety, and drug addiction for many years. He had barely gone out of the house and was on the methadone programme.

Scollay was also depressed, on medication, and had been on the methadone programme herself.

Morse said Scollay had talked about why the ambulance had not arrived sooner after the stabbing.

Detective Rachel Jefferies interviewed and later arrested Scollay for murder.

Scollay had told her: "How can I have done that to him. He's not bad. We were just miserable. I can't believe I did that. What was I thinking."

She had said: "I didn't want to kill Guy. I miss him already."

Jefferies recorded Scollay saying: "God, Guy, please forgive me. We can't keep living like this. We are miserable. I love him. He's so damaged. We both are. I don't want him to die. I just want him to change."

Scollay told the police that she and her husband had never had a conversation about assisting him with suicide.

A forensic scientist for Environmental Science and Research (ESR), Wendy James, said she examined the Scollays' Edgeware Rd house on the day of the murder.

Guy Scollay was lying on his back on the floor of a bedroom, with medical equipment about, and a black-handled knife on top of a stack of books on the floor. The body had an oval-shaped wound near the left nipple.

She described the pattern of blood stains in the bedroom. Extensive blood staining in the bed indicated that Guy Scollay had been stationary in the centre of the bed for a time after receiving his injury.

Possible blood staining was found by testing in the laundry and bathroom, and blood was found on the knife.
Another forensic toxicologist at ESR, Samantha Coward, said she analysed a blood sample from Scollay. The sample taken at 7.30am on the day of the homicide showed a level of 93 milligrams of alcohol to 100 millilitres of blood.

Assuming a normal rate of "clearing" alcohol by her body, she estimated the level of alcohol at the time of the stabbing – about 2.55am – would have been between 138mg and 183mg. The legal driving limit is 80mg.

Forensic scientist Richard Wivell said DNA analysis showed extremely strong indications that the blood from the knife blade and on the washing machine in the laundry came from Guy Scollay.

Justice Cameron Mander has told the jury that it was expected that the trial would finish hearing all the evidence today, which is just the second day of the trial, and the jury would retire to consider its verdict tomorrow.

The jury was going to watch the DVD recording of the police interview with Scollay today.

http://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/auckland/news/nbcri/1195801354-scollays-suffered-from-morphine-addiction--court-hears




Scollays suffered from morphine addiction, court hears

By: Jessica McCarthy, | Latest Crime News | Tuesday February 11 2014 16:51






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UPDATED 7.11PM - The jury in the trial of a Christchurch woman accused of murdering her husband has heard the couple had both suffered from morphine addiction.

Lucille Scollay has admitted stabbing Guy Scollay in the chest but claims she did not mean to kill him.

The High Court has heard that Mr Scollay was taking methadone at the time of his death and also suffered from extreme anxiety.

Reading a statement, the coupleâ s son Louis Scollay told the court his parentâ s health had a negative impact on their day to day lives.

"Both mum and dad were very embarrassed about their health problems and their inability to be employed.

"Because of that they had very few friends. They didn't like it when I had friends around because they were embarrassed that my friends might judge them."

Earlier, the court heard the emotional 111 call made after Lucille Scollay stabbed her husband.

Scollay was in tears as the call was played.

Crown witness, paramedic Kristien Baines, was one of the first to attend the incident and told the court of his initial assessment.

"By his appearance, which we checked initially with pulse, breathing and pupils, it was clear that he's already passed away at that point

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Researcher studying kids of mothers on methadone

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Contributor:
Fuseworks Media

Wednesday, 11 June, 2014 - 06:30


Jacki Henderson and team.

Over the last 40 years, methadone has been the most commonly used method of treating pregnant women with an opiate addiction.

A University of Canterbury research study led by Dr Jacki Henderson will assess the developmental outcomes of children whose mothers were maintained on methadone during pregnancy.

Despite its widespread and increasing use, there is a limited evidence of the effects of prenatal methadone exposure in infants, and even less evidence of later child health and brain development,’’ Dr Henderson says.

Since 2002, the methadone in pregnancy study, which is conducted as part of the University of Canterbury’s Christchurch Child Development Research Group, have been assessing children at regular intervals from birth to age four and a half years led by former University of Canterbury Professor Lianne Woodward, now at Harvard University.

Last year Dr Henderson initiated the nine-year old follow-up assessment wave and with three postgraduate students conducting research, the study has begun. This follow-up assesses children’s attention capabilities, emotional and social functioning, cognitive and language capabilities and educational achievements."

This study will examine data of 91 babies born to mothers maintained on methadone during their pregnancy alongside a randomly identified community sample of 97 non-exposed methadone babies.

We will look at examine the effects of exposure to methadone during pregnancy while also defining the children’s cognitive progress in the crucial middle school years.’’

Dr Henderson says one of the big challenges with the year-nine follow-up is locating the families following the earthquakes.

She says she has been supported by an outstanding and committed research team. Some of her team met the children soon after they were born, other members have returned to the group and watched their progress over the years.

The university’s Department of Psychology has provided a large amount of support for the study and for Dr Henderson’s research which has also received a Health Research Council Emerging Researcher Award of $146,243 funding.

Recent research indicates an estimated 10,000 New Zealanders are opiate-dependent. For these individuals, opioid substitution treatment using methadone is the treatment of choice and pregnant women are prioritised for this service. In Christchurch, typically 20 to 30 infants are born each year to women on the Christchurch methadone programme.

Understanding the family environments of infants born to mothers experiencing problems with drug dependence is vital to improving services. As families with significant daily challenges, their support needs are likely to extend beyond the neonatal period.

Specialist ante-natal and neonatal teams at Christchurch Women’s Hospital work together with the Christchurch methadone programme to assist opiate-dependent women during pregnancy and for a short time after the births of their children,’’ Dr Henderson says.

http://www.voxy.co.nz/health/researcher-studying-kids-mothers-methadone/5/193003