Psychotic killer had sought help

Press, 24 March 1988, Page 9

Psychotic killer had sought help

PA J i i Auckland 1 ■ bF)- ■ J ■ p \ U h ' ' | ' • I A former psychiatric patient sought help at Carrington Hospital for his mental illness just four days before he killed two persons and seriously injured two others with a carving knife, the High Court at Auckland heard yesterday. | j i I >

The medical officer at Carrington Hospital, Dr Murray Patton, said John Sofe Papalii was in a ; psychotic state and needed help. But Papalii did not want to stay at Carrington. '‘There was no action I could force him to take,” said Dr Patton. Papalii was arrested on June 4 soon after the killings in Herne Bay. J Papalii. aged 51, a sickness beneficiary, was found not guilty by a jury bn the ground of insanity' on two charges of murder and two charges of wounding with intent. He will now be detained indefinitely as a special patient in a hospital. Three psychiatrists, described as eminent in their profession, testified in court that Papalii was suffering from chronic paranoid schizophrenia. i Dr Patrick Savage, Dr Henry Bennett and Dr Laurie Gluckman agreed that Papalii was suffering from the mental disease

before, after! and during the double killing on the night, of June 3. Dr Savage said FJapalii’s condition had gradually worsened after a lack of treatment over | many months, i ■ I ■ : I The Court was told that Papalii was released into the' community in July, 1986, after spending 20 years in| psychiatric institutions. J ’;( He did not seek continuing medication! for his condition as he did not like the treatment 1 and he told his sister it made him sick. I; ! ! Dr Patton : said ! Papalii told him he I was worried his heart: was going to stop and! he was breathing poisoned air] He claimed the lodgers at his Papillon boarding house did not like him land (mocked him. I The I psychiatrists agreed Papalii was suffering front delusions: iDr Benneft said that, Although; Papalii |( would have been aware of what he was doing on the night TL ! 1 i H.

of June 3 and realised his acts would have caused potential harm, he was incapable i of knowing what he was doing was morally wrong. ! “At thel time | he believed what he was doing was right,” said Dr Bennett. “This was entirely due to the extent of the disease of 'the mind.” . I The Crown prosecutor!, Mr Michael Ruffin, said that on the'night of June 3 Papalii took a carving knife from the boardinghouse ! kitchen and later stabbed an elderly man waiting at >a bus stop, i The man, Bruce Edward Abbott i Gray, later died.) ■ ! I Papalii returned to the boarding house, (hid the knife and! watched teleivisibn.j . !' \ !| Early the next morning Papalii disturbed < a lodger, Margaret Moengafoa, by making a noise oytside her room. (When she was on her way (to the toilet ; Papalii !j fatally (stabbed I her, the (Court I I: 'll

heard. Two other lodgers, were wounded when they came to her aid. Papalii later told Dr Bennett; he was going to die and he wanted to take someone with him. "A life for a life,’’ Papalii told Dr Bennett. “If I had to die they would die, too. I wanted somebody to suffer with me.” Mr Justice Robertson, summing up, told the jury that the Court was not a political forum. It was not the jury’s (job to make a statement of wider implication. 11 | "There , may be inquiries! (which have been going on, ( are going on, and ought to go on about how (the community responds and how we as a society; discharge our responsibilities to those who are disordered in some way. | “This is (not the function of this I trial.” The jury retired for 25 minutes before returning its verdict.