“He was a man of strong likes and dislikes who thought of himself as being totally loyal to his family and friends and expected to be treated in the same way. His enduring affection for the UK and for the Conservative Party as represented by individuals such as Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher was very much a feature of his personality. He enjoyed demonstrating his extensive knowledge and appreciation of history and culture … To people who were unfamiliar with [his] personality he could appear extremely eccentric and rude. Friends who had grown familiar with his way of speaking and behaving would understand that – in the context of his background and consistent personal philosophy – some of the extraordinary things that he would say or write were understandable and not an indication of mental illness.” 185. In paragraph 91 of his report Professor Howard says that the aetiology of delusional disorder is unknown, but people who have been subject to particularly traumatic early lives or who have sustained head trauma are statistically more likely to develop psychotic disorders in general. In paragraph 92 he says that without treatment almost all patients with delusional disorder will continue to hold their delusions for the remainder of their lives. In paragraph 93 he says that the content of the delusions, and the certainty with which the patient believes them to be true, is usually constant. As I have already said, Dr Reveley expressly agreed with this proposition. Professor Howard adds that, because Bane did not receive treatment with antipsychotic medication, if he had been seen by a psychiatrist at any time between 1984 and his death “it would have been straightforward for that psychiatrist to elicit the details of [his] delusional system which would not have changed”. However, what does change over time in these patients is the degree to which their thinking is dominated by the delusions, the distress they express in relation to them, and the degree to which their behaviour is motivated by the delusional beliefs. 186. In paragraph 96 of his report Professor Howard describes the core beliefs of Bane’s delusional system as being laid out in a series of three reports which he wrote in December 1984, and in the list of people whom he believed to be involved in the international conspiracy. I have already referred to Bane’s first report to the police dated 7 December 1984, and to his list of persons involved in criminal activities dated 5 December 1984. He produced two further reports under his code name of “Angel” dated 14 and 24 December 1984, detailing the background and alleged involvement of a large number of businessmen, mainly in the pharmaceutical industry. For present purposes, nothing turns on these two further reports and I need say no more about them. Professor Howard goes on to say in paragraph 96 of his report that Bane believed his sister to be a significant figure in the conspiracy, and to represent a real risk to his physical safety. He seems to have viewed his wife’s involvement in any plot against him as being at least partly due to the fact that she was “a sexually ill person”, and he seems to have regarded Zoran as a victim of the activities of his wife and sister rather than as an active member of any persecutory conspiracy. 187. So far as Zoran is concerned, Professor Howard expresses the view in paragraph 102 of his report (with which it will now be apparent I agree) that Bane never suffered from the delusion that he was not Zoran’s natural father. In paragraph 104 he lists the