Psychiatrist advises top CoP

Secretary of the Association of Psychiatrists (APTT) Dr Varma Deyalsingh is advising Police Commissioner Gary Griffith to brace for more threatening phone calls from people suffering from mental illnesses.

Deyalsingh said he was not surprised to learn three of the four people who made threatening phone calls to the E999 Command Centre may be suffering mental illness.

On Saturday a ten-year-old boy threatened to behead Griffith.

Deyalsingh said there may be two reasons why people with mental-health issues may be so prone to make threatening phone calls, especially to the CoP.

He said, “People with mental illness may suffer from what is called paranoid delusion, and often times they would think people are after them and they may see a need to reach out to the police to complain about these perceived persecutions.

"They often call, to get some release, to the local police authorities and many of these patients are known to the local police service.”