A MAN who stabbed and killed his good friend near Armidale has been found not guilty of murder on mental health grounds.
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The 49-year-old had pleaded not guilty by reason of mental illness in the NSW Supreme Court in Armidale to murdering the 43-year-old man with a knife in a home on a property on the outskirts of Armidale in mid-June 2017.
He then dragged the man's body outside to the backyard, and placed a hat "neatly" on him and his boots beside him.
It's still unknown exactly when he killed his friend, who had been watching TV, but the body was discovered about 8am the next day, after police were alerted.
Neither man can be identified for legal reasons.
Justice Stephen Campbell accepted two expert psychiatric reports and, on Wednesday, returned a special verdict of not guilty to murder by reason of mental illness.
"I accept the evidence of Professor Greenberg and Dr Nielssen that when he stabbed [the victim] ... he felt morally justified in his actions in that he was saving the people of Armidale, and himself, from being incinerated by aliens or from their military personnel, who were going to attack the town and kill the citizens," he said in an 18-page judgement.
"In these circumstances, I accept that he did not know that the act of stabbing [the victim] to kill him was morally wrong."
In these circumstances, I accept that he did not know that the act of stabbing [the victim] to kill him was morally wrong.
- Justice Stephen Campbell
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The now 49-year-old will be detained indefinitely in a special wing at a correctional facility, or mental hospital, until he is released by due process of law.
Justice Campbell accepted the Crown and defence arguments and found the accused could not be held criminally responsible for the 2017 death.
"I fully appreciate that [the victim] was an entirely innocent victim of a brutal attack borne of a diseased and deluded mind," he said.
"He did not deserve to die. I offer my sincere condolences to his family, who have been present in court during the trial. I appreciate that my words cannot salve their sorrow, grief and profound sense of loss."
The accused was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia in his teenage years, and the 43-year-old man was reconciling with his wife and had purchased a property, but had agreed to stay at the property.
He was "genuinely concerned for the accused" and it "seems that he had promised to watch the State of Origin football match with the accused" on the night of his death.
Detectives were able to recover text messages from both of their phones to show conversations in the weeks leading up to the death.
The court heard evidence of the man's "deterioration of his mental state" and observations of his behaviour, "which can only be described as bizarre", the Crown prosecutor told the court.
The court also heard evidence about a "delusional conversation" the accused had with his mother, before the body was discovered.
On the night of the murder, he told her "the aliens are here and they're going to cook the earth unless I do something", claiming he had "been telling you this for years".
'They are going to cook us unless I do something, but we will all be OK. You're safe',"
- Accused to his mother
"She tried to calm him down, but he repeated: 'They are going to cook us unless I do something, but we will all be OK. You're safe'," Justice Campbell said.
It was the accused's mother who contacted triple zero about 8am the next day, who then in turn made contact with the 49-year-old.
The triple zero phone call was played in court, the accused telling the operator: "There's a dead guy here".
He said the man "died last night" and an ambulance wasn't needed because "it's all over", but he wanted to talk to police.
The accused told the operator: "Can we just send those guys along? Yeah, thank you very much for your help", before telling the operator the ambulance wasn't needed.
"Mate, he's dead, he's gone," the accused said.
Justice Campbell was told the victim had concern for the accused in the weeks leading up to the murder.
Police recovered text messages in which the accused said "the voices had stopped" but "I'm restless", in mid-June.
And his "seemingly normal behaviour" of going to buy items in Armidale and talking with a customer at McDonalds at 5am - after "extreme violence" in the killing - was not unusual, according to the experts.
The court heard the accused told police "he had been threatened through the walls of the cells", after his arrest.
The Crown's expert found the accused "was labouring" under the effect of the illness, and his actions were "caused by a disease of the mind".
He found, after assessing the accused, that he did on some level know it was wrong under the law but "did not know the act was morally wrong at the time", the Crown prosecutor told the court, adding the accused "believed he was justified in his actions".
The doctor found the accused was in an "acute psychotic state at the time of the alleged offence", the Crown said.
He has a long-standing diagnosis of schizophrenia and told the psychiatrist: "I was absolutely paranoid they were going to get me", he said of the aliens, after leaving work.
The court had heard the accused's medication had changed in 2017 and he had also lost his father.
The defence expert assessed the 49-year-old and found he "has a disease of the brain" and "was affected by a defect of reason" at the time.
The evidence in court said this "led him to believe he had to kill [the victim] to save Armidale from being blown up".
The killing was, in the experts' view, a "response to a delusional belief" and he was "unable to reason with any degree" on the night of the murder.