Accused not guilty on ground of insanity

Press, 22 May 1987, Page 4

Accused not guilty on ground of insanity

PA Wellington A Wellington shopowner, Christian Robin Hack, has been found not guilty of the murder of his mother, on the ground of insanity, in the High Court at Wellington. Hack, aged 47, admitted at the trial to having caused the death of his mother, aged 79. He was accused of hitting her with a fence paling outside her Island Bay home. The jury deliberated for 40 minutes before return-

ing its verdict. Mr Justice Eichelbaum ordered that Hack be detained in a hospital as a special patient under the Mental Health Act. Summing up the case, his Honour said the jury should not get bogged down worrying about the consequences of its decision. A verdict of not guilty because of insanity would not mean that Hack would go free — he would be detained for treatment for as long as the authorities thought proper. Caring people could not

help but be concerned about the consequences of their decision, but their task was to reach a verdict on the facts of the case, his Honour said. The critical issue was Hack’s mental state at the time of the incident, not what his mental state was now.

His Honour said it was for the defence to prove the accused’s insanity, on the balance of probabilities. That was a lower standard than the Crown had to meet to prove its case.

A person was legally insane if he had a disease of the mind that rendered him incapable of understanding the nature and quality of the acts he committed, or was incapable of knowing the act was morally wrong according to commonly accepted standards of right, and wrong, he said.

His Honour said there were three powerful opinions from psychiatrists that Hack suffered a disease of the mind, and there was also evidence of 15 years of admissions to a mental hospital.

The evidence of the experts was unanimous on the issue of Hack’s state of mind, his Honour said. If the Crown, had evidence to the contrary it would have been presented to the jury. The jury was told it should not be sidetracked by what it thought was best for Hack, his family, or the community.