Blackmail case halted by depression

A senior executive of the Herpes Association, accused of an attempt to blackmail a leading drugs company, has escaped prosecution because he suffers from clinical depression each time a trial date approaches.

Once the date is abandoned Michael Wolfe recovers, an Old Bailey court was told. Yesterday Mr Wolfe, 49, of Finchley, north London, walked free after the prosecution, "with considerable reluctance", applied for the charge to be left on the file.

The Recorder of London, Sir Lawrence Verney, warned Mr Wolfe that the prosecution would be revived if he took any further action against the Wellcome Foundation. "This is a very unusual case which the court has been endeavouring to try for a very long period and all those attempts have been unsuccessful," he said.

Mr Wolfe has not been able to attend many of these hearings because of his mental state but he was in court yesterday day to plead not guilty to the blackmail charge. Peter Clarke, who has appeared for prosecution throughout, said: "Its a forensic syndrome I haven't come across before on such a chronic scale and I am at a loss to say what the solution is."

The problems were aggravated because each time he suffered a depression Mr Wolfe saw a different psychiatrist, Mr Clarke said.

Wolfe was committed for trial in May 1994 accused of demanding pounds 250,000 from the Wellcome Foundation in return for his silence over what he alleged was the ineffectiveness of its cold sore drug, Zovirax. He was arrested after allegedly collecting a briefcase containing the blackmail money from a cafe. Magistrates were told the general manager of Wellcome, Gary Noon, had carried a hidden microphone during meetings with Wolfe.

Mr Wolfe, secretary of the Herpes Association, which helps herpes sufferers, until he was made redundant six months ago, had also allegedly threatened to publicise drug tests and complain to MPs about Wellcome's marketing practices.

The Recorder, "in an unusual twist to a very unusual case", ordered that Wolfe should get back the pounds 4,000 he had contributed to his legal aid costs. His counsel Stephen Batten QC said he had always protested his innocence.

But the decision to drop the charge could lead to "ridiculous" situations in future, a leading medical negligence lawyer warned. David Harris, of Manchester solicitors Alexander Harris, said he had never heard of case where depression had stopped a prosecution.