Insane killer was on bail for earlier attack

7.30am

An Otaki man who believed he was fighting Satan was acquitted of murder at the High Court in Palmerston North yesterday on grounds of insanity.

Jesse Moore, 24, a roading gang worker, bludgeoned and strangled 43-year-old Lorraine Patricia Royal to death under a bridge at Manukau on October 1 last year, while on bail for the attempted murder of a workmate the previous day.

He was also acquitted of the earlier charge on the grounds of insanity.

The hearing, before Justice Gendall, was the first in the country to be heard under the Criminal Proceedings (Mentally Impaired Persons) Act 2003, which came into force on September 1.

Under the new law, a judge may determine whether or not the accused is not guilty on account of his insanity prior to a trial, Justice Gendall said in opening the proceedings.

He said section 20 of the new act allowed the judge to decide on the accused's insanity only if three conditions were met: That the accused suffers from a mental disorder; that the prosecution agrees that the only reasonable verdict is not guilty by reason of insanity; and that the judge is convinced by expert evidence that the accused was insane within the meaning of the law when the offence was carried out.

The court heard that on September 30, Moore went to the home of a 49-year-old workmate in Otaki.

They sat down and drank tea in the dining room, but shortly afterwards Moore smashed his mug into the other man's face. He then knocked the man to the floor and began punching him in the head, while saying: "You have to die and I have to kill you."

Moore then began strangling the man, who pretended to be dead, so Moore would let him go.

At the first opportunity, the man escaped and ran to a bush area nearby and hid. Moore followed him with a pair of scissors and a 1.8-metre long length of metal bar.

Police were called by neighbours and Moore was eventually arrested. The workmate was hospitalised and needed 20 stitches to his face.

Moore appeared at Porirua District Court the next morning, where Judge Barry Lovegrove bailed him over the opposition of police.

- NZPA