Prompted by all the coverage surrounding the death of Ian Brady today.

What do you think about people like him? Are they monsters? Are they unfortunate victims of an illness? Are they 'responsible' for what they do? Are some people just 'evil'?

What should society do with them? Put them to death? Lock them up forever? Try to rehabilitate them in some sense?

I'm really interested in these people and forensic psychiatry is one area of medicine I'd actually like to work. I did a placement in a Forensic Psychiatric unit last summer, and while it was medium security so not quite the level of people like Brady, I still met some pretty scary characters and it was fascinating getting a little bit of insight into how their minds just seem to work so differently.