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Dear Dr Ashton,

        My former solicitors, Campions, wrote to C.I.T.A. concerning my case and their reply, dated 17th March 1988, indicated that they should contact you as "you are the expert on these matters". Regrettably and disastrously for me it appears that they did not pursue the matter with the result that when I appeared at the Old Bailey on the 5th of October I discovered that no defence had been prepared on my behalf in accordance with my instructions leaving me no choice but to request an adjournment and a change of solicitors.

    After six weeks of uncertainty, the formalities were completed and a new firm, Hallmark Atkinson Wynter was appointed to represent me. I now discover to my amazement and consternation that they also refuse to pursue the matter because the court has indicated a desire to dispose of my case with a hospital order. Legally, this option is quite impossible as the several psychiatric reports that have been produced are in conflict amongst themselves and with the reports of the original doctors who were treating me before my arrest.

        Leaving aside the complexities of my case where it is alleged that I threatened to wipe the island of Cyprus from the face of the planet unless they paid Commander Nemo 15 million US dollars in non-existent 200 dollar bills on the 1st of April 1987 whilst a colonel Digsby from MI6 offered to assist them in finding Nemo's satellite controlled, self-destructing PIG's (I swear this is all true, this is what I'm charged with and I've been on remand for

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        I am 37 and British by birth but at the time, I was living and working in Cyprus running my own investment management company and an international magazine distribution company, also my own. In 1985 I became involved with a younger woman as a result of which my marriage ran into problems and the situation climaxed with my wife faking a suicide attempt. All three of us ended up under the prescription-pad counselling of a Cypriot psychiatrist.

        Both girls stopped his treatments very soon afterwards but because the 'triangle' persisted, my very mild depression led me to continue seeing him until, before I realised what had happened, I was completely and utterly addicted to the massive doses of drugs he was prescribing. My life became a pharmacological nightmare as he switched from one treatment to another and then back again then mysterious courses of injections followed by more pills. On one occasion he charged me the equivalent of £600 sterling for 10 daily insulin jabs.

        This hopeless situation lasted about two years at the end of which I was taking 2 to 4 Parstelin, 2 or 3 Stelazine, 50 to 150 mg Largactil, 3 to 5 Valium 10 mg and between 3 and 6 Rohypnol occasionally supplemented with a couple of "rugby ball" shaped Normison capsules every single day! I became a mental and physical wreck as I am sure you can appreciate considering that my original reason for going to see him had long since dissipated. (I was also taking Akiniton Retard, the red pills.)

        My first Parstelin course lasted 3 months and ended with me at death's door in an horrific thyrazine poisoning incident but he soon persuaded me to try again and I then continued to take the aforementioned cocktail for about a year when quite suddenly and inexplicably Parstelin was withdrawn from all the Cypriot pharmacies by the distributor.

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        My wife decided enough was enough and arranged for me to see another psychiatrist who was genuinely horrified at my treatments and rang up the first doctor in my presence for an explanation although he did not get much co-operation from him.

        The new doctor told my wife and I that it was imperative that I stop my old treatment immediately, allow two weeks to clear my system and switch to a new treatment to help me get back to normal. Those two weeks were absolute hell, I turned into an animal, a wild animal. I had panic attacks, anxiety attacks, flushes, hot and cold sweats, runaway palpitations, I was hyperventilating, trembling, oscillating, I had involuntary muscle jerks, and spasms, I developed agoraphobia, xenophobia, photosensitivity and all sorts of strange ideas and behaviour.

        My wife was terrified and everyone thought I had gone completely mad including myself as none of us knew anything about addiction, withdrawals and side-effects. Anyway, somehow I survived those two weeks and started the new treatment which very quickly eliminated most of the obvious physical symptoms although my mental condition, if anything, got worse.

        The new cocktail was Anafranil, Ludiomil, Xanax, Valium, Halcion, Largactil and Akiniton Retard. After two months or so he dropped the last two and substituted Vivalan. I continued to get these anxiety- panic attacks, sometimes as many as 15 per day and I was told to suppress them with either Largactil or Valium but only the latter worked and as they were on a 'take as required basis' I must have been taking huge quantities which explains why I was staggering around half asleep all the time.

        After three months or so on the new treatment the attacks and agoraphobia had substantially abated but in anticipation of an attack, I still maintained the high Valium dose, as soon as I missed a pill, I'd get an attack. I realise now, retrospectively, that at that time I developed some absurd and irrational ideas or delusions, although at the time everything appeared to make

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perfect sense to me. I can see now that my Halcion tablets were also precipitating bouts of amnesia where I would, in a sense, 'confess' to anyone who happened to be around, the most extraordinary and blatantly ridiculous lies but mixed up with enough truth to appear plausible and in the morning I would have no knowledge of the conversation whatsoever. As an example I told my wife that I was a NATO spy charged with keeping an eye on her sister's boss who was a soviet illegal under the cover of a German businessman. Ludicrous as this sounds now, my wife believed it because, before we moved to Cyprus, I was a security consultant working on sophisticated covert surveillance systems for people like the MOD. The fact that I had obtained a job for her at the British High Commission in Cyprus gave my absurd story a great deal of credibility.

        However, my wife did notice the amnesia aspect and became very worried. After discussing it with my doctor, she persuaded me to return to London and see a Harley Street specialist and my doctor agreed. In order to facilitate my trip he suggested an abrupt and large scale reduction of my medications, at the same time all but eliminating my dosage of benzodiazepines (so I could function safely in traffic, etc.).

        Within a week or so I lost the ability to distinguish between fantasy and reality and as a result of one of my rampant delusions I fled from Cyprus in my pyjamas by air and booked myself into a 5 star hotel in London's west-end where upon I began to terrorise the President of Cyprus by telephone with an electronic voice box which also did dog impersonations until I was finally arrested having caused an international incident in the intervening few weeks.

        After my arrest, it took 3-4 months before my mind returned to normal and a full 10 months for my recovery to be complete during which time I received no treatment or attention whatsoever and in fact remained oblivious

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to what had actually happened until the early part of this year when I instructed my solicitor to contact C.I.T.A. which, of course, he never followed-up and is the reason for my direct approach herein.

        I am sure that you will not be surprised to learn that both my Cypriot doctors are refusing to release my medical records, that the prosecution is refusing to disclose the letters of introduction they gave me, that my barristers refused to consider my obvious defence, that both my solicitors have obstructed every effort made to prove my innocence, that my defence psychiatrist, Dr Paul Bowden, has diagnosed me as a dangerous psychotic recommending a section 37 and 41 of the Mental Health Act and saying that I am unfit to plead because amongst other gems "I think there is a conspiracy against me" and so on.

        In fact, the judge ordered the prosecution to send upto three psychiatrists to confirm Dr Bowden's report and when they all failed he insisted that my new solicitors commission another defence report which was carried out by Dr M a'Brook who not only found me perfectly sane but was quite prepared to state that my symptoms were those of a drug induced psychosis!

        Unfortunately, Ms Postgate, my solicitor, has asked him not to write his report until he has fully considered all the 'aspects' of the case!

        My own interpretation of all these machinations is that not only would it be considered unethical for a doctor to give evidence of another doctor's incompetence in court but my case would, if I won it on a benzodiazepine defence, set a precedent unacceptable to the courts, government and, for all I know, the multi-billion dollar pharmaceutical companies, therefore no effort is being spared to thwart every effort I make to establish such a defence.

        From the very little I know of C.I.T.A., I gather

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that they may be just about the only organisation who could be of help to me as their aims are to establish in law the very points which are at the very heart of my defence.

        What I desperately need is a solicitor who is sympathetic towards and knowledgeable about the issues involved, who has access to a barrister prepared to pursue such a brief aggressively and is willing to take my case on. I really don't know if the court will allow me to transfer my legal aid again but I am certainly willing to make a vigorous application as I am not happy with my present solicitor who was selected for me by my family on the recommendation of MIND without consulting me.

        I then need a psychopharmacological report to counteract that of Dr Bowden and confirm, on the basis of my Cypriot medical reports and the prosecution's own evidence that I was the victim of a negligently prescribed benzodiazepine, withdrawal-induced psychosis.

        I would be most grateful if you could consider the above and if you feel that you or one of your colleagues could provide me with the name of a suitable firm of solicitors, would you be so kind as to contact me direct at Pentonville so that I may take the appropriate action.

        I would welcome any assistance that you are able to give including any literature or advice on the subject and I look forward to your reply in the hope that, at long last, I have found someone able to help me. I remain,

yours faithfully

P Koupparis

PS Could you please return a p/copy of this letter to me with your reply? Thank you.