A Dunedin man ruled unfit to stand trial messaged a gamer friend saying, "LOL'' after allegedly stabbing and bashing a Waldronville woman to death last year.
The 23-year-old had been charged with the murder of Vicki Lee Warrington and wounding a man with intent to cause grievous bodily harm on July 3 last year. He appeared in the High Court at Dunedin this morning.
The court heard that after Ms Warrington was found dead, the man, who suffers from autism, was found by police listening to music in his bedroom.
Justice Venning ruled he was unfit to stand trial after the court heard from two psychiatrists. They said the man had a limited understanding of the court process and the magnitude of the charges against him.
Before making the ruling, Justice Venning read from the summary of facts, revealing horrific details of the attack.
Ms Warrington, who for many years had a "strained" relationship with the accused, was ruled to have died as a result of blunt and sharp injuries to the head and neck after being beaten first with a table, then slashed with a kitchen knife.
The court heard the attack took place in the Dunedin suburb following a disagreement which occurred after the accused failed to move to Wellington as previously planned. This resulted in him being given an ultimatum to leave just before the attack.
The man did not take the news well, and began kicking and punching Ms Warrington before bashing her with a small table.
The other victim attempted to stop the attack, the court was told, but suffered deep lacerations to his scalp after being pushed over by the man.
The other victim later barricaded himself in the hallway and reported hearing the accused "yelling and screaming'' and what he thought was either punching or stabbing sounds as he attacked Ms Warrington.
The other victim managed to wrestle the knife from the man outside the property after the man threw a second table at him, which narrowly missed.
The court heard the 23-year-old was found in his bedroom by police listening to music, and had messaged a gamer friend saying: "LOL" about the fatal attack, followed up by: "You should talk to me in jail".
Forensic psychiatrist Dr Justin Barry-Walsh, in recommending the man was unfit to stand trial, said on top of autism, he showed psychotic symptoms which included hearing voices.
He had limited understanding of the court process and "struggled" to understand why he had been charged with murder, the court was told. This was shown by the fact he believed that, instead of being charged, he should be allowed to "recover" in a house in Queenstown.
Given the symptoms he showed, Dr Barry-Walsh said he was puzzled why the man had not been diagnosed as being on the autism spectrum disorder earlier.
Justice Venning remanded the man in custody until April 4 to a medium security unit at Wakari Hospital.
