Campaign for John Hunt

As of 2013, Humphrys is still being quoted in the Irish press about Hunt's apparently ongoing psychiatric detention: "I am very critical about how his admission was dealt with – it was with the use of force and coercion.

Humphrys has expressed the view in relation to Hunt's history that, "trauma and loss, amongst other factors, form the bedrock of John's problems — his so-called attachment disorder and paranoid schizophrenia.

[3] As he was deemed a danger to himself, this led to his involuntary committal in 2006 at the Carrig Mór Centre, a Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) in Shanakiel, Cork.

Hunt was under the management of a forensic psychiatric team in an 18-bed unit for involuntary patients deemed to have behavioural difficulties arising from their mental condition.

The Irish Examiner has noted that she gained substantial attention to his case, powerfully portraying him as a lost soul imprisoned against his will and cut off from his family.

[9] Three days after Senator Boyle's visit to Hunt he called for a debate in the Seanad on 'the culture of mental health and psychiatric care services' in Ireland.

[10] In his address Senator Boyle referred to his visit to the Cork psychiatric hospital and the fact that Hunt had only seen his son outside of that institution once in the previous four years.

[11] Later in 2010, following the campaign's expanded media presence and Senator Boyle's visit to Carraig Mór, Hunt was granted day release without supervision.

[9] Hunt was allowed a six-hour pass every two weeks and, according to Humphrys, this reconnection with the world outside of the secure psychiatric hospital gave him 'new hope for his future'.

The tribunal ruled that Hunt should be transferred to the Central Mental Hospital, Dundrum, the main forensic psychiatric facility in Ireland.