‘Urgent’ action needed after Melbourne woman’s near decade in solitary confinement in mental health facility, judge says

A county court judge has told Victorian government departments that the continued seclusion of a woman found not guilty of assault due to mental impairment is ‘an emergency situation’. Photograph: Con Chronis/AAP

A Victorian judge says the state’s health and attorney general’s departments must act urgently in the case of a woman who has spent almost a decade in solitary confinement at a forensic mental health facility.

Guardian Australia revealed in July that the Melbourne woman is being held at Thomas Embling hospital, a secure forensic mental health facility, after being found not guilty because of mental impairment on assault charges in 2015.