Nicky Reilly and Autism as a criminal defence
Nicky Reilly, aged 22, is on trial for a failed attempt to bomb a restuarant in Exeter. He has Aspergers Syndrome and additional learning difficulties. According to media reports he has a mental age of ten. Five years ago he converted to Islam and began to attend the local mosque.There is no question of any blame attaching to the local muslim community in his home town of Plymouth. But two men, now believed to be abroad are alleged to have been involved.
The facts of the case are straightforward. After becoming a Muslim Reilly became more intolerant of wrongdoing in others, both in his family and in the socially deprived area of town where he lived in an overcrowded flat with his mother and two half brothers. According to the Guardian,
Several say he began to criticise them for “ungodly” ways. “I used to hang around and cause a bit of trouble,” said one 19-year-old boy. “He started coming up to me and ranting about me. He was risking a kicking but we knew he wasn’t right in the head so left him alone. We knew he used to have a go at his family too, so we didn’t really take much notice.”
This behaviour is consistent with Aspergers Syndrome. Attempting to blow yourself up in a crowded restaurant is not. Reilly was naive and not malicious. His nickname as a teenager derived from his size and his gentle nature. He was known as the BFG, the Big Friendly Giant of the eponymous children’s tale.He was probably unhappy. A schoolboy acquaintance told the Guardian,
“He was a quiet boy. He was a follower rather than a leader. We used to have a laugh with him, tease him, but he never lashed out. He was a gentle lad.”
Where they laughing with him or at him? And would Reilly have known the difference? One reason he gave for his conversion was
that he had been told you will get a better life when you die if you are a Muslim.
The Guardian also reports on his personal distress when his girl friend ended their relationship. He became depressed, self harmed and needed psychiatric treatment. This experience added to his vulnerability. I surmise that it was this vulnerability that attracted those who recruited him to radical Islam and also explains why he was such a willing recruit. It is classic cult psychology. He had led a miserable life. It was easy to blame those around him and in Reilly’s case probably true. In Islam he had found personal acceptance and a rationale for his mistreatment in the “godlessness” of his tormentors. Then came the further, twisted logic that persuaded him that he could punish the godless and, through martyrdom, attain the “better life” which had thus far been denied to him. His recruitment last year would fit with his decision to change his name to Mohammed Rashid Saeed-Alim and intensify his religious devotions.
Thanks to the efforts of his unknown mentors, who are now believed to be abroad, he acquired the knowledge and the determination to travel to Exeter with bomb making materials with the intention of detonating them in a busy restaurant. He bungled the attempt, injuring himself and no others. Whether he is a committed terrorist or a witless dupe, he could easily have killed scores of people that day and clearly needs to be dealt with. But how?
The police, unusually in a case terrorism, seem quite sympathetic. He was treated as a vulnerable adult in police interviews. His mother, in a BBC interview, is convinced that Reilly is a victim and not a criminal. She thinks he should be in hospital and not in prison.
This whole affair raises a number of questions in my mind and I am not altogether certain of the answers.
- Despite the obvious connection with Islamic terrorism would it be more useful to consider Reilly alongside those unaffiliated lone killers who make the headlines with depressing regularity?
- Although I believe that Reilly’s autism is a part of the story, it is not the whole story and should not define our response. It is one thing to argue for accommodations in everyday life to assist autistic people. What are the ground rules for expecting accommodations when autistic people become a demonstrable threat to society?
- If Reilly had been an autistic Asian or Arab Muslim rather than a white autistic convert, how much sympathy or understanding would he be getting now?
- Should people like Reilly go to prison because, whatever your history of abuse, there can be no extenuating cicumstances that mitigate the crime of terrorism?
- If Reilly was not autistic he would be found guilty, go to prison for a long time and then be released. Using autism as a part of his defence may get him sectioned under mental health legislation and detained with no hope of release. Common criminals do the crime, serve the time and are freed to repeat the process or not. But if you are sectioned you can only be released if you can prove beyond reasonable doubt the unlikelihood of your reoffending. You are detained in advance for crimes you may yet commit.
With increasing numbers of people being identified with autism it is inevitable that there will be increasing numbers of defendants in criminal cases identified with autism. The mental health community has been there already with stereotypes of the criminally insane. We should take account of their experience whenever someone seeks to invoke autism or aspergers as a defence in criminal proceedings.
