Akash murder trial: Psychiatrists on defendant's insanity/mental health - court hears opposing opinions

Akash, who goes by only one name, pleaded not guilty to murder as his trial began at the High Court at Auckland. Photo / Michael Craig

In the hours and days after schizophrenic security guard Akash stabbed his girlfriend to death, evidence suggests he dumped Gurpreet Kaur's body in a remote area of South Auckland, he tried to hide bloodstains on his clothes, and he insisted to police the 22-year-old killed herself.

While there's little doubt he suffered a "disease of the mind", those actions suggest he's unlikely to fit the parameters of an insanity defence, a forensic psychiatrist told jurors today at his murder trial.

"It is my opinion on the balance of probability that it's more likely than not he knew what he was doing was wrong," Dr Peter Dean testified at the High Court at Auckland.

Akash, who goes by one name, had been living in New Zealand on a student visa for about three years when he was arrested in April 2016 for the death of Kaur, who was seven to 10 weeks' pregnant. He pleaded guilty to murder and was sentenced in October 2016, but four years later the Court of Appeal overturned the conviction so a jury could decide the insanity issue.

For the defendant to be found insane, jurors would have to determine that his disease of the mind was to such an extent that he didn't know what he was doing was morally wrong.

Another forensic pathologist, Dr Justin Barry-Walsh, testified on Thursday that aspects of the case support the proposition that Akash was unaware he was morally wrong. Texts and witness accounts of his behaviour on the weeks before the killing suggest his personality had changed and he repeatedly referred to having his accounts hacked, Barry-Walsh pointed out.

In interviews with mental health personnel after his guilty plea, Akash said he was being followed by gang members who wanted to hurt him and he thought Kaur was colluding with them by giving them hand signals.

But the defendant's own account of what happened has changed multiple times over the past six years. Because of that, Dean said, he found Akash's actions immediately after the killing to be more important in making his assessment.

"Hiding evidence of the incident is more suggesting that he knew it was wrong," Dean testified.

Akash's three recorded interviews with police several days after Kaur's death - in which he initially said he knew nothing about her death, then suggested his own brother might be the culprit before leading police to the body but saying it was suicide - were also telling, the psychiatrist said.

Dean said he had reviewed multiple police interviews of people who were later found to be legally insane. In some of them, the suspects are perplexed to be there "and expect to be released because they believe they've done nothing wrong", he said. Occasionally, a person is instead guarded - perhaps not trusting the police - and gives limited information. And other times "you might get a very mechanical account of the actions without any explanation", he said.

But Dean said giving police a deliberately deceitful account of what happened would be unusual "if they believe what they've done is morally justified".

The trial is set to continue on Monday.