A 20-year-old man who has repeatedly threatened to commit suicide by throwing himself off the top of a Blackburn town centre car park has appeared in court charged with making threats to kill his girlfriend's dad.

But Blackburn magistrates were told that Mark Legatt is a victim of the system which is failing him at every turn.

Defence solicitor Kevin Preston took the unusual step of asking the magistrates to lift reporting restrictions because it was important that the public should be made aware of the situation.

"This man has been talked down from the top of the Thwaites brewery car park five times in the last three weeks," said Mr Preston.

"His mother and family are asking 'Does he have to throw himself off to get the help he needs?'."

Mr Preston said Legatt's mother felt unable to cope with her son at home and normal probation hostels also refused to take him because of his mental health problems.

A specialist hostel in Manchester would be able to cope with him but would only consider him after a psychiatric assessment had been carried out.

"Red tape and procedures mean that I can't get a specialist to come and see him unless I employ one using public money," said Mr Preston.

"Before I can do that I have to get permission from the Legal Services Commission and in the meantime my client stays in prison. I have to try and get a psychiatrist to come and see Mark in the next seven days and I am hopeful rather than optimistic. We just go round and round.

"The only way forward is that he has to be remanded to a prison establishment and I have to try and persuade a psychiatrist to see him in the next seven days and produce a report," he said.

"The general public need to be made aware of the situation which is totally unacceptable. There are people like Mark who are in custody who should not be and they wouldn't be if they were receiving the correct treatment in the correct establishment."

The chairman of the magistrates told Legatt, 20, of St Stevens Avenue, Blackburn, that their hands were tied and they could only remand him in custody.