Mentally disabled offenders ‘exported’ for special care

DOZENS of intellectually disabled people who commit crimes are being sent abroad for specialist care because the state has nowhere to put them.

At least 35 and possibly as many as 90 such offenders are out of the country, or in need of the services available abroad, at any one time, mainly in Britain.

Doctors say it is difficult to get an exact figure because most are attached to a myriad of voluntary learning disability services here, while others are wrongly placed in general psychiatric services. The State only has services to cater for offenders who are mentally ill, not mentally handicapped.