She is 4ft 10in tall weighs 6st 7lb and with long raven hair a sunbed tan and a wisp of a flowery dress hardly

She is 4ft 10in tall, weighs 6st 7lb and, with long raven hair, a sunbed tan and a wisp of a flowery dress, hardly looks substantial enough to calm the tortured and aggressive souls of people like James Mallett. ‘In the end it’ll kill you.’ “Yet, despite appearances, Mallett’s life had begun – unknown to him – to take a turn for the better. While he was on remand, the probation services, thinking that he should be in residential care, had asked for him to be assessed by a Yorkshirewoman called Rose Cusick.ROSE CUSICK is a maverick, not afraid to take on the authorities or to live on a knife-edge. In her forties, she is something of a heroine in the world of mental health care. He still has a photograph of her, a Fifties snapshot of her laughing as she looks out of a car window.By 1991, Mallett’s frame of mind was ragged and dangerous.

He committed arson again, this time burning down a child guidance centre. There followed a three-and-a-half-year sentence during which Mallett was moved from one jail to another, partly as a result of his one-man campaign to stop drugs circulating in the prisons ” ‘Don’t start on drugs,’ I told them. She was terrified and now keeps both her telephone number and her address secret from him. During one prison sentence he wrote to her threatening to burn her house down. I thought she was a bloke.” In fact, he seems to have terrorised his mother from an early age.

He would lash out when he didn’t get his way, and the violence and aggression continued as he grew older. When he got out he returned to his vagrant ways, sleeping rough, stealing food when he was hungry – and medicine when ill.In 1989 he saw his mother for the last time “I hit my mum once,” he admits, with difficulty and remorse “My mind went blank. There were no injuries, but the damage was extensive, and Mallett served six months in Lincoln jail. Panicked by the ensuing blaze, he threw a wet towel over his head and raced along the balconies banging on the doors and warning everyone.