Man detained indefinitely for killing mum and hiding body under rug

A man who killed his mother and hid her body under a rug has been detained without limit of time at a high-security psychiatric hospital.

Neil Carmichael, 34, attacked his mother Morag Carmichael on December 7 last year at the family home in Drumnadrochit in the Highlands.

The 66-year-old, who ran a donkey sanctuary, sustained six knife wounds as well as suffering fractures to her skull, neck and cheekbones.

She was struck with ornaments, a baseball bat, saucepan and knives before Carmichael later told his father Kenneth that she was dead.

Carmichael was charged with murdering his mother but was acquitted after the Crown accepted he was not criminally responsible at the time because of a mental disorder.

He had moved back to his parents’ home after living in Aberdeen and Glasgow.

He lost his job as a kitchen porter following the Covid pandemic outbreak. His mood was “up and down” and his parents had urged him to see a doctor.

When his father returned home, Carmichael told him his mother was dead.

The father thought something serious had happened and went around the house looking for his wife. He eventually found her under a rug just outside the back of the house.

A judge was told that Carmichael had been known to take drugs, including cannabis and valium, since he was a teenager.

Lord Doherty, sitting at the High Court in Edinburgh, ruled that Carmichael, who is at the State Hospital at Carstairs, should be under both compulsion and restriction orders.

He said he was satisfied on the basis of all the evidence before him and in particular that provided by a consultant forensic psychiatrist that he should make the orders recommended.

The court heard that Carmichael would require substantial management and oversight to ensure he did not return to drug use. Dr Jon Patrick agreed that the risk was that he would once again lapse into a psychotic condition.

The court heard that Carmichael suffers from paranoid schizophrenia and will require ongoing treatment for many years.

Advocate depute Gavin Anderson took the psychiatrist through reports he prepared on Carmichael.

He agreed that he considered it necessary for a compulsion order to be made in order to provide him with continuing treatment in secure conditions.

He also agreed that in his view Carmichael would also benefit from the additional monitoring and safeguards that a restriction order provided.

The court heard that Carmichael was required to be detained in conditions of special security that can only be provided at the State Hospital.