Costa Blanca
Altea mother fears her own son
By h.b.
Apr 17, 2008 - 8:20 AM

A woman from Altea has called for her schizophrenic son to be admitted to a psychiatric hospital as she fears that she may be killed by him. The subject is currently a sensitive one following the death of a woman at the hands of her son in Santomera in Murcia earlier in the week.

The woman tells today’s ‘Información’ newspaper that he son has threatened her with a knife and a month ago grabbed her by the neck.
The doctor who attends to the son in the La Vila Hospital, explained that in his release report the son is described as a schizophrenic drug user with a slight mental disability, but also notes that home treatment has proved ineffective in the past.

‘I just want him to get better’, says the mother.
The case comes as the latest statistics show that Alicante province has only one bed for every 1,400 mental patients, a total of just 126 beds across the province.

Meanwhile in Murcia the mental health authorities have admitted that those who are mentally ill, such as the son who killed his mother in Santomera, are not normally held permanently in hospital. Friends and neighbours of the victim there are indignant, especially as the mother had been complaining for years that she feared for her life.