Judge raises fears over mental health care for arsonist
Judge Graham Cottle will write to the city's mental health services, to say the probation service are concerned that Shane Cutts is not receiving enough support to help his good progress in sorting his life out.
Judge Cottle yesterday agreed to the Echo's application to lift a ban on reporting the case, at Exeter Crown Court.
Court hearings about Cutts have been held in private since the last public one in March, which was about him stabbing himself in a city street while serving his community order.
The Echo's legal affairs correspondent wrote a letter to appeal against the ban, after finding out again yesterday that the press would not be allowed to attend.
Judge Cottle said: "It's right that it should be made public that Mr Cutts, since the last court appearance, has really done extremely well."
Cutts, 25, was given a two-year community order last July after pleading guilty to arson. He had put burning paper through the letterbox of his parents' city home.
He then breached the order by breaking his curfew at the Gabriel House residential scheme in Exeter and injuring himself with a knife.
At that hearing, Judge Cottle said he feared that Cutts was a risk to himself and to any member of the public who tried to intervene in a similar incident.
He had originally been given the community order on condition that he receive mental health treatment, supervision and regular reviews.
Judge Cottle had previously blasted mental health authorities for using prison "like a dustbin" because Cutts had spent 14 months in custody before his case was resolved.
Prosecutor Gareth Evans yesterday said the probation service was keen to continue the order and drop the breach proceedings, as Cutts had successfully stuck to his curfew.
But he added that there were concerns the mental health services were not providing enough help.
The court heard that Cutts had moved to accommodation run by Gabriel House, where he was doing very well.
Probation officer Bernard Moore told the judge: "All I ask you to do is urge mental health to put its risk management and treatment programme into place".
Defence counsel Warren Robinson said his client wanted as much help from the mental health services as possible.
"It's a very sorry tale," he said.
Judge Cottle told Cutts: "I am going to allow the order to continue.
"I hope the mental health requirement, which is an important part of this, can move ahead as well. Your own performance since your last attendance has been extremely encouraging and I congratulate you on that."
Judge Graham Cottle
