Schizophrenia

...ba href=/schizophrenia/a/b" at the time.

"I was not a thinking individual," he said, blaming his parents for "denying him maturity" and "not teaching me the facts of life." His parents didn't explain the "pecking order" to him, he explained, as an example, adding he's learned about the system of deference to those in power while in prison.

"The state should be punishing my parents, at least chastising them publicly," Mullin said.

"They're the ones who made me do it.

They put me in a situation where I became mentally insane." Mullin said his parents have since died.

Back then, Mullin said he was having a "terrible time." He took LSD and marijuana, was in and out of mental hospitals, and sought outpatient treatment in Santa Cruz.

But he's changed, he said.

He's healed.

He attends Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, and hasn't taken any kind of medication since 1976.

He's taken vocational courses in cooking, landscaping and cabinetry, and studied tai chi.

According to a prison report read at the hearing, he's worked as a janitor for the past five years, and received positive evaluations from his supervisor.

Mullin suggested grocery clerk or gas station attendant as possible employment opportunities if he were released.

A commissioner reminded him the world had changed while he was in prison, and that gas stations were now self-serve.

Mullin insisted he was ready to face the world, to be a benefit to society and to demonstrate rehabilitation works.

"I'm extremely remorseful and sorrowful for my ...

...ba href=/schizophrenia/a/b.He arrived in Australia in 1984 on a humanitarian visa and became an Australian citizen in 1989.A year later Mr T was found by Newcastle Police, quote "loitering around a closed service station" late one night.

That's when his official troubles began.JOHN MCMILLAN: Because of his poor language skills, and apparently born overseas and confusing answers, the Department of Immigration was called and on each occasion they formed the view that he was an unlawful non-citizen.

ALEXANDRA KIRK: Professor McMillan says Mr T, who suffers from a severe mental illness, was detained by the Immigration Department three times between 1999 and 2003.His name wasn't properly recorded and no-one followed up an interpreter's concern that he was mentally ill.

Before his eight-month detention in 2003, Mr T was reported to police as a missing person at least six times.

The Ombudsman says it's a disturbing case, bearing disturbing similarities to those of Cornelia Rau and Vivian Alvarez.Mr T is now is psychiatric care.

The Opposition leader Kim Beazley says it shows a department out of control and incompetent, albeit acting under Government direction.KIM BEAZLEY: There has to be a royal commission on this hopeless department.

We said that this department was a turnstile of incompetence.

This department cannot be micro managed out of its problems.

This department has to undergo a full-scale royal commission.

ALEXANDRA KIRK: The Immigration Department's publicly apologised for Mr T's det...

...ba href=/schizophrenia/a/b, was held at Villawood Detention Centre on three separate occasions - first in 1999, and then twice in 2003.

PROFESSOR JOHN McMILLAN: There should have been some warning signs, some flags within the system to ensure that this could not happen again.

DANA ROBERTSON: Each time, 'Mr T' was taken to Villawood after being picked up by police and giving apparently conflicting information.

But John McMillan says he should have been identified.

PROFESSOR JOHN McMILLAN: There was an accumulation of errors in this case.

Fingerprinting was not used to identify 'Mr T', the name that he had written down was wrongly translated, information that he had given which could have been followed and identified him correctly was not followed.

DANA ROBERTSON: The second time he was held for almost nine months before being released to fend for himself.

TONY BURKE, OPPOSITION IMMIGRATION SPOKESMAN: There was no handshake with state mental health services, there was no attempt to make sure that he was being cared for, he was given $20 and three bags and seen out the front door.

DANA ROBERTSON: Just a month later, he was back in detention, and the Ombudsman says he could well have stayed there for months again, except he happened to be recognised during a chance meeting with an Immigration officer.

Amanda Vanstone's written to the man to apologise and says there are no excuses for what happened.

But she has made it clear her department's not solely to blame.

SENATOR AMANDA VANSTONE, IMMIGR...