Dr Derek Robinson

Murdered Doctor Championed Teen Refugees

It was with profound sadness that the Medical Foundation learnt of the murder of one of its examining physicians with his wife in their north London home. Dr Derek Robinson was a leading authority on the ageing process of adolescents - of crucial importance to young refugees who the Home Office sought to prove were adults masquerading as teenagers.

As a volunteer doctor with the Medical Foundation retired paediatrician Dr Robinson was asked to provide expert evidence in a number of such cases.

To the young refugees in question, independent evidence of the fact that they could be under 18 meant they could remain in Britain, receiving local council support, at least until they reached adulthood. In some cases it meant an immediate release from detention, where they had been placed by immigration officials who believed that they were really young adults lying about their age.

Dr Robinson held that it was impossible to access a teenager's precise age without regular measuring developments such as bone growth over a protracted period. A Royal College of Paediatricians study to which he contributed eventually issued guidelines saying that there was no scientific way in which to establish a teenager's precise age within two years either side of the correct age.

Dr Robinson,76, and his wife Jean,68, were found dead with stab wounds after opening the door to a stranger at their home in Highgate Hill early one morning in September 2004.

Sheila Melzak, principal community child and adolescent psychotherapist at the MF said: "Dr Robinson's work was of crucial importance to a number of youngsters - it quite literally meant the difference between freedom, and being locked up on an immigration officer's whim.

"He was quite clear about the complexities of age assessment, saying anything remotely accurate could not be rushed, but had to be done over a period of time. He was also extremely good at dealing with other youngsters who had been tortured, or had witnessed it. He had a holistic, multi-disciplinary approach and was very alert to the mental state of those he examined, and good at spotting the particularly vulnerable, who might need psychotherapeutic help."

In March 2006 serial killer Daniel Gonzalez who killed the Robinsons and two other victims in random, drug-crazed attacks was convicted of murder after an Old Bailey jury rejected claims that he was driven to kill by mental illness.

Gonzalez was described by the prosecution as a "callous, cold person" who wanted to emulate the slaughter inflicted by the evil figure of Freddy Krueger in the Hollywood horror film Nightmare on Elm Street.

Richard Horwell, prosecuting, said Gonzalez subsequently tried to manipulate psychiatrists into believing he heard voices commanding him to kill and was a "psychopath" whose "very personality led him to kill - disinhibited by a cocktail of drugs and alcohol". The defence claimed he was guilty of manslaughter not murder.