By ANGELA GREGORY
A disturbed Rawene man who killed his children and a neighbour had cried out for help for his mental problems but all he got were prayers, Bible readings and an amateur exorcism.
In the High Court at Whangarei yesterday, a jury found Brian Desmond Aporo, otherwise known as Smith, not guilty of three murder and two attempted murder charges on the grounds of insanity.
On December 10, 1999, Aporo cut his tiny children's throats with a butcher's knife, fatally stabbed a neighbour in the heart, and tried to stab his de facto wife and another neighbour.
He admitted the actions but denied that he was guilty of murdering Israel Aporo, aged 3, Keziah Te Huia Smith, 11 months, and Trevor Francis Mokaraka, 47.
He had also denied attempting to murder partner Te Huia Hape and neighbour John Fenton.
After the verdict, Justice Colin Nicholson placed Aporo into institutional care as a special patient under the Mental Health Act.
Defence lawyer John Ross had earlier told the jury the evidence that Aporo was not sane when he committed the murders was "powerful and overwhelming."
Many in the Hokianga town had noticed Aporo's increasingly bizarre behaviour, said Mr Ross.
"The accused talked about Satan, was building rock altars, thought people were going to poison him, broke out in heavy sweats at night, and believed he was under a makutu curse."
On the morning of the murders Aporo was incoherent.
Mason Clinic director and psychiatrist Dr Alexander Simpson testified that Aporo had a psychotic disorder.
He had been suffering delusions from at least March 1999, which was supported by the evidence of 13 witnesses.
Dr Simpson said some close to Aporo had prayed with him and spoken to him in tongues rather than tried to help him.
That only made Aporo look more closely into his guilt and his persecutory and religious delusions.
Dr Simpson noted police statements showing that Aporo had asked if he needed professional help, but various Rawene Baptist Church members had advised against it.
Instead, one member blessed his house room by room, demanding that Satan leave it.
When Aporo was having trouble sleeping at night he would sit up late reading the Scriptures and singing with Te Huia Hape.
Dr Simpson said Aporo was described as a loving father.
Because of his delusions, on the day of the murders he would have been unable to realise that his violent actions were morally wrong.
"In probability his actions were motivated to save himself and his family from the spiritual forces attacking him ... The perversity is the person thinks they are doing the right thing when they are doing the wrong thing."
Dr Simpson said that when Aporo moved to Rawene about a year before the murders he had felt he was being mocked, and started to believe people were trying to poison him. He also said the Bible freaked him out.
From November, Aporo started hearing voices telling him to kill himself, and he could not eat or sleep well. Dr Simpson said Aporo came to believe he and his family were some sort of sacrifice.
On the morning of the murders Aporo thought he saw a creature on the side of the road laughing at him.
Dr Simpson said Aporo ran into his house and could not remember anything of the rampage that followed, including that he had stabbed himself.
When he woke after surgery in Whangarei Hospital he thought something evil had been inserted in his stomach, and tried to rip out his stitches.
Dr Simpson said Aporo suffered from a post-traumatic stress disorder after a parentless childhood marred by sexual and physical abuse.
Aporo told Dr Simpson that he saw the faces of his abusers in the people he assaulted.
Aporo had joined the Nomad gang in Masterton aged just 14, "hoping it would be more of a family for him."
But he did not enjoy gang life and testified against some members, for which he was put under a police witness protection scheme. His fears of being exposed fuelled his paranoia.
Dr Simpson said Aporo had developed a borderline anti-social personality by his early twenties. He was admitted to the Mason Clinic in 1993 after threatening suicide while in jail, and was treated at Kingseat Hospital for short spells in 1997.
Jury finds triple killer insane
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