Health and Mental Development
Derek Bentley had a series of health and developmental problems. During World War II, the house in which Bentley lived was bombed and collapsed around him, leaving Bentley with serious head injuries and concussed.
Kingswood Approved School administered diagnostic tests to Bentley during the time of his detention there. In December 1948, Bentley's mental age was estimated at 10 years, 4 months; his actual age was 15 years, 6 months. Bentley scored 66 on an IQ test in December 1948 and 77 in 1952. After his arrest in November 1952, further IQ tests were administered to Bentley at Brixton Prison. Bentley was described as "borderline feeble-minded", with a verbal score of 71, a performance IQ of 87 and a full scale IQ of 77.
As of December 1948, Bentley had a reading age of 4 years, 6 months. He was still "quite illiterate" at the time of his arrest in November 1952.
Bentley was examined twice by EEG: a reading on 16 November 1949 indicated he was an epileptic and a reading on 9 February 1950 was "abnormal".
In February 1952, Bentley underwent a medical examination for national service, where he was judged "mentally substandard" and unfit for military service.
Read more about this topic: Derek Bentley Case
Famous quotes containing the words health and, health, mental and/or development:
“Pride can go without domestics, without fine clothes, can live in a house with two rooms, can eat potato, purslain, beans, lyed corn, can work on the soil, can travel afoot, can talk with poor men, or sit silent well contented with fine saloons. But vanity costs money, labor, horses, men, women, health and peace, and is still nothing at last; a long way leading nowhere.—Only one drawback; proud people are intolerably selfish, and the vain are gentle and giving.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“I think that carrying a baby inside of you is like running as fast as you can. It feels like finally letting go and filling yourself up to the widest limits.”
—Anonymous Mother. Ourselves and Our Children, by Boston Women’s Health Book Collective, ch. 2 (1978)
“Myth is an attempt to narrate a whole human experience, of which the purpose is too deep, going too deep in the blood and soul, for mental explanation or description.”
—D.H. (David Herbert)
“I’ve always been impressed by the different paths babies take in their physical development on the way to walking. It’s rare to see a behavior that starts out with such wide natural variation, yet becomes so uniform after only a few months.”
—Lawrence Kutner (20th century)