Queensland Health refers former psychiatrist to corruption watchdog over book on murderers
Updated
Former Queensland Health psychiatrist Donald Grant has been referred to the Crime and Corruption Commission (CCC) amid concern about "potential corrupt conduct" over his use of allegedly confidential information in a book on 10 murderers he examined.
Queensland Health told the ABC the matter would also be investigated by the health ombudsman.
It comes after Sonia Anderson, the mother of murder victim Bianca Girven, accused Dr Grant of betraying victims of crime and breaching the confidence of his former employer in his book, Killer Instinct.
Ms Anderson has renewed her call for Dr Grant's book to be removed from book stores.
"He is calling this entertainment, and that's sick — he's the psychiatrist, it's sick," Ms Anderson told the ABC.
"When a psychiatrist is asked by Queensland Health to interview a mentally unwell patient or murderer that is totally private information.
"He's saying these people are mentally unfit and not able to go to trial, so how can he then say they've given consent for it to go into a book?"
Dr Grant has not been employed by Queensland Health since 2013.
In a statement released on Wednesday by his publisher, Dr Grant said he believed families deserved "insight into why their loved ones were killed".
He said doctor-patient confidentiality was not broken because the interviews he completed were not for treatment purposes, but for "medico-legal" assessments made available to the courts.
Debbie Kilroy from prisoner advocacy group Sisters Inside also fired stinging criticism at Dr Grant's book, calling it "sensational rubbish".
Ms Kilroy said it also contained factual inaccuracies.
She said the families of several killers mentioned in the book had told her they were distressed by what they read in the book.
Speaking on Thursday, Ms Anderson became emotional as she too expressed sympathy for the killers' families.
She also said it was traumatic to read previously undisclosed details of her own daughter's final moments alive.
"I'm not fighting just for me, I'm fighting for, not even just the victims' families … I don't think that someone who's been mentally unwell should be exposed like this by a psychiatrist," she said.
"My daughter's killer should not have had this published without it being legally okay.
"The facts surrounding it aren't factual, he didn't even check the internet to see his facts were correct."
The Royal Australian & New Zealand College of Psychiatrists said it was "currently reviewing the matter internally".
Topics: public-sector, mental-health, courts-and-trials, health-administration, health-policy, corruption, brisbane-4000, qld
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