Terrorist or mentally ill? The impossible decision dividing our police, spies and judges

Dr Simon Copeland, an associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) who co-authored the report, says the “nuanced” interaction between mental health issues and terrorist motivations was making it more difficult for security services to define attacks. “We’ve seen [from] recent attacks that it has been very difficult, and how long it’s taken for the security services and police to make that decision,” he adds.