A 34-year-old Dunedin man has been charged with attempted
murder following an incident at a Mornington house on
Wednesday night.
The man was believed to be suffering from a serious mental
illness, public defender Campbell Savage told Judge Michael
Crosbie, at the man's first appearance in the Dunedin
District Court yesterday.
Mr Savage asked for a remand for an assessment of the man's
fitness to plead, and of his sanity at the time of the
alleged offence. He was not opposed to the defendant going to
Wakari, Mr Savage said. Because of the mental health issues,
he asked for an interim order for name suppression.
Judge Crosbie remanded the man to March 28 for psychiatric
assessment and a report on his mental state. The initial
assessment yesterday was the man was likely to be suffering
from a major mental illness, the judge said.
Because of that interim diagnosis, the judge agreed to
suppress the man's name in the meantime, but said that order
would have to be reviewed later.
The name of the complainant was also suppressed.
