Insanity plea accepted in Rotorua Hospital killing

A Rotorua man has been found not guilty of the manslaughter of a Rotorua Hospital psychiatric ward patient on the grounds of insanity.

Believing she was infested with aliens, the man, who has permanent name suppression, pushed 51-year-old Maara Albert who fell, hit her head and died of a blood clot to the brain.

Psychiatrists who saw the man after the incident found that he was suffering a disease of the mind described as a relapse of an "acute schizo-effective disorder".

Justice Paul Heath has remanded the man into the care of Hamilton's Henry Bennett Centre, which is a psychiatric hospital.