Man found not guilty of murder judged insane

Press, 22 July 1989, Page 14

Man found not guilty of murder judged insane

PA Whangarei A 28-year-old man was found not guilty of the murder of his father, a Northland doctor, James Brownlie, on the ground of insanity.

Hamish Richard Brownlie pleaded not guilty to the May 3 murder when he appered for trial before Mr Justice Henry in the High Court at Whangarei.

The jury deliberated for just one minute before returning its not-guilty verdict. The court was told Dr Brownlie had died from loss of blood after he was stabbed in the chest at his Whau Valley home by his son in the early hours of the morning.’ Detective Sergeant John Payne of the Whangarei C. 1.8. told the court he had interviewed the accused on the morning of the murder. When asked what had happened the accused told him it was “atomic mass transfer” and he had killed "Satan.” The accused said Dr Brownlie had killed him in a previous life when he was a woman called Rebecca White. “Satan is finished here on earth,” he said. The court heard the accused had rung his parents’ home at 3.40 a.m. on

the day before the murder.

Dr Brownlie’s wife, Mrs Kay Brownlie, said she answered the telephone and the accused had said “this is Jack the Ripper calling” before he hung up.

The accused had rung back 20 minute later and spoken to his father but it had all been “gibberish,” she said. Hamish Brownlie arrived at his parents’ home later that day, and had planned to stay for a couple of days, she said. Mrs Brownlie had gone to bed early that night because she had to be up at 5 a.m. z the next day to prepare for her job as a nurse.

Her son usually got up at the same time, she said.

Mrs Brownlie said she was taking a shower about 5.30 a.m. when she heard the accused “bellowing.” She quickly went to investigate and found her son standing in the doorway to her husband’s den shouting he had killed Satan.

Dr Brownlie was lying face down in a pool of blood. She unsuccessfully tried to give him mouth-to-mouth resucitation before calling an ambulance.

For the defence, the

head of Auckland’s Kingseat psychiatric safecare unit, Dr Tyrone Burgess, told the court the accused suffered from chronic paranoid schizophrenia. Dr Burgess said the accused told him at the time of his father’s death he had a mission to complete at Cape Reinga.

Hamish Brownlie told him he saw people and cars disappearing from roads.

The accused thought he was being persecuted, thought his father was Satan and believed if his father was not killed he would die instead. He also believed his mother was unhappy in her relationship with “Satan,” Dr Burgess said. The accused’s speech and thinking were quite disordered — he was illogical and incoherent, Dr Burgess said.

Brownlie’s condition meant he was unaware he suffered psychiatric problems and at the time of the murder had not been taking his medication properly, Dr Burgess said. A second Auckland psychiatrist, Dr Laurie Gluckman, told the court he believed the accused had been suffereing mental problems for at least 10 years.

He had examined

Brownlie at the request of Auckland’s Carrington psychiatric hospital in May, 1983, and as a result had issued a certificate to have him committed for help.

The accused was discharged from hospital in June 1985 and readmitted in August two years ago, he said.

- He was placed on leave from hospital treatment Tn April this year. Dr Gluckman said Brownlie’s condition had “deteriorated considerably” between May, 1983, and the time of the murder.

In 1983 he tried to hang himself but his life had “undoubtedly” been saved by his parents who discov-

ered him during his suicide bid. Dr Gluckman’ said the accused had tried to “sacrifice” himself in 1983 because he believed his father would then live but had murdered his father this year so he could live.

The accused had no idea his actions were morally wrong, he said. After the jury’s not guilty verdict, Mr Justice Henry ordered that Brownlie be detained at Kingseat Hospital as a special patient.