Qld: Mental patient charged with assisting patient suicide

AAP General News (Australia)
12-18-2003
Qld: Mental patient charged with assisting patient suicide

By Ainsley Pavey

BRISBANE, Dec 18 AAP - A psychiatric patient has been charged with assisting another
patient's suicide after allegedly taking rat poison into hospital in Brisbane.

Padraic Thomas Moore was charged yesterday after fellow Princess Alexandra Hospital
patient Michelle Tanin swallowed the poison on December 13.

Tanin survived the poisoning which took hold after a nurse at the hospital allegedly
saw her taking something in the toilet.

Moore, 33, is facing charges of attempted murder, attempting to aid in a suicide, grievous
bodily harm and maliciously administering a poison with intent to harm.

He was given bail by Brisbane magistrate Bernadette Callaghan after she heard the former
drug addict was on the methadone program.

"Jail is not appropriate for this patient ... he needs his treatment," she told the court.

His father, Brisbane family court barrister Jon Moore, told the court Moore had checked
into the unit with the poison a week and half before the incident.

Police allege Moore took the poison into the hospital at Buranda on Brisbane's southside
to kill himself and it was taken by Tanin, who was another suicidal patient.

Tanin was allegedly seen by a nurse to be taking something in a toilet before collapsing.

She survived the incident and Moore was charged four days later.

Moore's father told the court he planned to brief another barrister before a committal
mention on February 9 next year.

The court was told Moore would be kept in a secure area in the hospital's psychiatric
unit while on bail.

AAP ap/sc/sjb/jlw

KEYWORD: MOORE

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