uksurvivors : Message: Prozac defence fails - 15 year old convicted of murder of his father

uksurvivors : Message: Prozac defence fails - 15 year old convicted of murder of his father



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Prozac teenager kills father with hammer
A 15-year-old boy bludgeoned his father to death and attempted to murder his mother with a crowbar and a pair of scissors after suffering rare side effects of Prozac, a court heard.

Last Updated: 8:53PM GMT 06 Feb 2009


Victim Gary Belben (left) and Ed Belben Photo: East News / Essex Police
Ed Belben lured his father Gary, 59, up to his bedroom before hitting him more than 30 times with a hammer and then plunging a knife into his head.

Chelmsford Crown Court heard the teenager then went downstairs and told his mother Tanya, 43, he had something to show her before trying to beat her to death with a crowbar and stabbing her with a pair of scissors.

Belben, now 17, had denied murder after arguing that his personality was changed when he began taking the antidepressant drug Prozac.

However, the jury did not accept his plea to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility and found him guilty of the murder of his father and attempted murder of his mother.

After the attacks on December 17 2007 Belben fled the family home in Colchester, Essex, covered in "blood, bone and brain", and was later arrested by police.

The prosecution claimed the Ed Belben had got into a bad crowd, was being led astray by his young girlfriend and had taken a cocktail of street drugs, including cannabis, cocaine, crack cocaine, ketamine and amphetamine in the years leading to the attack.

Edward Rees, defending, claimed the attack was sparked by a dangerous build-up of Prozac which Belben had been prescribed to treat depression just a month before the fatal attack.

The court heard that doctors had prescribed 10mg of the antidepressant Citalopram in October 2007, which had been against medical guidelines for treating depressed youngsters.

In November 2007 he was then prescribed 20mg of Prozac, double the recommended minimum starting dosage.

Dr Andrew Herxheimer, a consultant clinical pharmacologist, said medical evidence showed the drugs could cause side affects including suicidal thoughts, compulsion to self harm and aggression.

He told the jury Prozac can build up in the body in the first few weeks of taking it as the body cannot process it quickly enough which makes "adverse consequences more likely".

Belben sobbed in the dock as the jury delivered its verdicts and was led out by two security guards.

Judge Michael Justice Tugendhatt adjourned the case for sentencing.

Speaking outside court Mrs Belben, a nursery school worker, said: "There are not enough words to describe how this has affected my life and the lives of my family and friends. We are devastated. We have lost the most wonderful man."