A psychiatric patient who bludgeoned another man with a spade before setting him alight has been found not guilty of murder on the grounds of insanity.
Matthew John Ahlquist, 33, was accused of murdering Colin Moyle in May last year, at the victim's home in Sandringham, 6km southwestof central Auckland.
But in the High Court at Auckland yesterday Justice Geoffrey Venning found him to be insane and ordered him detained as a special patient at the Mason Clinic in Auckland.
Crown prosecutor Aaron Perkins said that Ahlquist was suffering from a disease of the mind at the time of the killing.
"According to the two psychiatrists he didn't understand what he was doing was morally wrong."
Mr Perkins said a law change now meant a judge could find a person not guilty on the grounds of insanity without a jury, and a jury was not empanelled for yesterday's trial.
The court heard Ahlquist killed Mr Moyle, 55, because he believed he was controlling him and he was convinced he was demonic.
Police had alleged he broke into Mr Moyle's house when the deceased man was away. When the victim returned, Ahlquist threw boiling water at him, chased him and hit him a number of times with a spade, then set him on fire.
