Personal Injury Solicitors

Aaron Dover, a 39 year-old former hedge fund manager, was detained for ten days against his will at Highgate Mental Health Centre. During his enforced stay he was physically restrained and injected with sedatives.

Before London’s Met Police launched their manhunt he had been suffering with stress. In September 2013 he had gone out for Sunday breakfast and a coffee when his wife called NHS 111 for some advice on dealing with the matter. The NHS were concerned that he may be suicidal, although there is no public record of why the concerns came about, and Metropolitan Police launched a major search with a helicopter and ten police cars to locate him. He was found in a coffee shop close to his home.

Aaron admitted to suffering from stress due to an employment dispute and that he had also suffered from depression. However, the response of the NHS and police was entirely over the top.
Aaron said: “I was brought into hospital by a manhunt of more than 10 police cars, police with dogs trawling Hampstead Heath, and a police helicopter, while I was out quietly having a coffee on Flask Walk”.

Aaron described the experience as similar to being hunted down, “like a nuclear suicide bomber rather than someone out for Sunday breakfast”.

He described how he was held against his will with patients who he found to be “terrifying” He said: “Some of the other patients were very aggressive and there were frequent fights on the ward. It’s basically the Hannibal Lecter ward of Highgate”.

Aaron was desperate to leave and hopes that he never has to step foot in the Highgate Mental Health Centre again. He described the ordeal as “an atrociously awful nightmare.”
After he was taken by police to the Highgate Mental Health Centre doctors briefly assessed him and decided that he had a delusional disorder. He was then sectioned under the mental health act and detained.

On 2nd October 2013 the tribunal at a five-hour hearing said that it was, “not satisfied that he was suffering from a mental disorder”. Aaron Dover was immediately allowed to go and no further treatment was required.

Mr Dover is now considering suing Camden and Islington NHS foundation trust for unlawfully detaining him, failing to properly assess his condition and causing personal injury. His personal injury solicitors said that the hospital had simply, “failed to properly investigate what Aaron was saying”.

It is shocking that in these modern times a totally innocent man can be taken by police and forcibly restrained and prescribed medication without properly assessing the situation. It is as if he was declared guilty of being a threat to himself and others the moment his wife made a call to NHS 111.

The story of Aaron Dover is reminiscent of the Susanna Keysen’s 1993 memoir Girl, Interrupted, which told the story of a Kaysen's 18-month detention in a mental institution for suffering from depression.

Duncan Lewis’ team of mental health solicitors can advise and represent you if you have had a similar experience.