Wire Reddington’s defence claims schizophrenia, Crown argues drug-induced psychosis

Wire Manuel Reddington in the High Court at Wellington where he is defending a charge of murdering his friend, Jamie Gill. Photo / Catherine Hutton

A forensic psychiatrist for the defence in a murder trial believes the accused Wire Reddington was suffering from schizophrenia at the time he is alleged to have killed his friend Jamie Gill in the Wairarapa.

But the Crown has argued he had a drug-induced psychosis.

Reddington denies killing Gill at a rural Carterton property in June 2023 and his lawyers say there isn’t enough evidence to convict him. But if the jury think he’s guilty they’ve urged him to consider a possible defence of insanity.

The Crown alleges Gill was killed during a fight in which he was cut and beaten before being strangled and then dragged down the driveway of the property. He was then dumped in a paddock, face down in a ditch, where he was left to suffocate. Pieces of his ears had also been ripped off.

Today, forensic psychiatrist Dr Shanmukh Lokesh continued giving evidence in Reddington’s defence at the High Court at Wellington.

Lokesh earlier told the court Reddington was diagnosed with schizophrenia in 2016 by medical staff while in prison and if left untreated his psychotic symptoms would have escalated substantially. Reddington would be using drugs and alcohol to treat his symptoms, he said.

It was Lokesh’s opinion that Reddington was schizophrenic at the time of the alleged offending and didn’t know his alleged actions were morally wrong. He also explained Reddington’s diagnosis was complicated by methamphetamine use.

Reddington couldn’t understand his alleged actions at the time of Gill’s death because he was so unwell. This included grandiose ideas like believing he was on a mission from God, comparing himself to Jesus and a need to protect his family, Lokesh said.

The court also heard Reddington is still receiving antipsychotic medication which has been prescribed to him at four times the typical dose, Lokesh said.

The Crown disagrees

But prosecutor Stephanie Bishop told the jury that the Crown engaged two forensic psychiatrists, neither of whom agreed with Lokesh’s diagnosis.

She said the jury would hear from both and that one believed Reddington had a drug-induced psychosis and the second thought Reddington had a disease of the mind, but didn’t mention schizophrenia.

Lokesh said the Crown’s first psychiatrist hadn’t interviewed Reddington and essentially had reviewed his report.

Bishop said the second psychiatrist concluded that while Reddington had PTSD and anxiety, difficulty regulating his mood, and anger and aggression issues, he found “no evidence of other serious mental illness”.

She said that psychiatrist thought Reddington was having a psychotic episode of sorts but thought this was drug-related, not because of an underlying mental illness.

Lokesh said he had interviewed Reddington four months after the second psychiatrist and had spoken to him for six hours, but wasn’t clear on how long the Crown’s psychiatrist had spoken to him.

Bishop asked Lokesh if the conclusions in the second psychiatrist’s report were ones that a reasonable and experienced psychiatrist would reach to which he said he couldn’t answer “yes or no”.

He explained when assessing patients, clinicians formed their own independent opinions.

The trial before Justice Jason McHerron continues.

Catherine Hutton is an Open Justice reporter, based in Wellington. She has worked as a journalist for 20 years, including at the Waikato Times and RNZ. Most recently she was working as a media advisor at the Ministry of Justice.