Book by forensic psychiatrist sparks calls for inquiry

Authorities have been urged to investigate a book by a forensic psychiatrist as a victim’s mother called for it to be withdrawn.

Sonia Anderson holds a photograph of her daughter Bianca Girven. Picture: Glenn Hunt.

Queensland Health is investi­gating a new book by forensic psychiatrist Donald Grant as distraught mother Sonia Anderson called for it to be pulled from shelves.

In a statement, a department spokesperson yesterday said: “We can’t underestimate how serious an issue this appears to be. On its surface, it looks like a betrayal of patients, victims and their families and the clinician’s duty to do the right thing professionally.

“We are incredibly distressed and looking into the matter.”

It comes after The Australian yesterday revealed Ms Anderson’s anger at learning her murdered daughter Bianca Girven’s last words through Dr Grant’s book, Killer Instinct.

The book discusses 10 Queensland murders and includes a chapter on Girven’s killer, Rhys Austin.

Dr Grant was appointed by the Mental Health Court of Queensland to assess Austin, who said voices in his head drove him to murder Girven — his girlfriend and long-time friend — in the back of a van in Brisbane in 2010.

An author’s note states that none of the cases involved treatment of patients under his care, otherwise “medical confidential­ity would apply and no sharing of information would be possible”.

At least one other complaint has been lodged with Melbourne University Publishing over the book, in connection to information about another killer Dr Grant had reported on for the Mental Health Court.

MUP at one stage discussed withholding the book from sale in Queensland, but this week ­confirmed it remained available nationally.

Dr Grant told The Australian he had not needed permission from the Mental Health Court to publish the information.

Asked why he hadn’t contacted victims’ families, he said it was not part of his role as a forensic ­psychiatrist.

Opposition health spokeswoman Ros Bates raised the issue in the Queensland parliament yesterday. “Sonia is rightly concerned about the events around publication of this book,” she said.

“No mother should learn about the last words of their daughter — after she was choked to death — through a book that she wasn’t even consulted about.”

There were emotional scenes at a promotional event for the book in Brisbane on Tuesday night, with Ms Anderson confronting Dr Grant from the audience before friends joined her in a walkout.

Dr Grant released a statement calling for greater transparency for families of victims, saying he would donate some of his royalties to support them.

He said the book included information that was available to ­offenders, their lawyers, prosecutors and mental health representatives. “However these reports are not easily accessed by families of victims,” he said.

He said he was “offering my expertise to help create a road map for ­victims of serious crime to ­access relevant reports” and his life’s work had been “to increase our understanding of why violence and murder happens”.

Ms Anderson rejected MUP’s suggestion the information was based on previously published material. “The only thing that becomes public is if you’re in the courtroom and physically hear it, or if it is in the judge’s findings.

“I definitely want the book removed,” she said.

Former Court of Appeal president Margaret McMurdo is among those to have praised the book.

Promotional material says Dr Grant was the first state director of forensic psychiatry in Queensland and was on the bench of the Mental Health Court for five years.

MUP chief executive Louise Adler has said Dr Grant “carefully considered the ethical issues involved” and the book was published “to contribute to national conversation on mental health”.