“We were all, all together like this … and Bane was fantastic,
you know, with mother, with all of us. This illness changed
him completely.”
68.
Jovanka goes on to say in her written evidence that it was in about 1983 that they
started to notice real changes in Bane’s behaviour. It became very clear that
something was not right, and he started making accusations of infidelity against
Mirjana for which there was no basis whatsoever. In May 1984, he also began to
abuse her physically and they all became afraid of him. However, he still had
moments of clarity, and later in May he apologised to Jovanka for having acted in
such a way towards Mirjana. Jovanka then persuaded him to visit Dr Radivojevic,
and as I have already said he diagnosed paranoia and prescribed a sedative.
Unfortunately, however, Bane discovered from one of Jovanka’s medical books that
the sedative prescribed was a treatment for delirium and he formed the belief that
Jovanka was trying to poison him. He began referring both to her and to Dr
Radivojevic as “Dr Mengele”. He also began to say terrible things about their mother,
although they had previously been extremely close. At this stage Bane still had some
insight into his condition, and arrangements were made (in fact through the good
offices of his American friend, Mr Rinaldi) for him to receive treatment at a clinic in
America. However, Bane then changed his mind and refused to attend the clinic or to
go to America for treatment. In June 1984 Bane flew back to Zurich from London
and stayed for the last time with Jovanka at her house in Zollikon. In her written
evidence she gives a graphic account of his condition:
“Bane was not in a good state. He was shivering and shaking
all over. He began to cry. He was staying with me and three or
four days later, at around 5.00 a.m., I heard a noise. I went
immediately to his room to see if I could find him. He was not
in his room. I went downstairs and … found him in his car. He
proclaimed that he was leaving right away. He said he was
going away forever and drove to Lugano. He stayed there for
sometime. He invited people to visit him and told them all
kinds of strange stories. Our mother and I visited him for two
days, but it was a horrible experience. He was very aggressive
and we were both afraid of him.”
69.
Later in June 1984, Bane left Switzerland and returned to London alone. He never
returned to Switzerland. Mirjana returned to London a little later, but he began to
lock her in her bedroom, sometimes for an entire day, and would also unplug the
telephone to prevent her meeting or speaking to her mythical lovers. He would also
spread powder around and claim that she was taking cocaine.
70.
Bane’s delusions soon extended to the circumstances in which he had left
Switzerland. In a letter to the Kreisburo (local government office) in Zurich which he
wrote on 6 June 1985, he explained why he had decided not to renew his residence
permission (“Niederlassung”) in Switzerland. He said that he had taken this decision
“for the sake of my personal safety”, and proceeded to give a graphic description of
how he had been drugged and taken to various European cities. He blamed Jovanka
and a friend, Max Kohler, for organising all of this. He also began to accuse Jovanka
of having had a hand in their father’s death, and began writing strange letters to many