The Court entered special verdicts of act proven but not criminally responsible on all four counts (two choking offences, one assault occasioning actual bodily harm, and one murder) under s 31 of the Mental Health and Cognitive Impairment Forensic Provisions Act 2020 (NSW), where unanimous psychiatric evidence established the accused was experiencing a first-episode psychosis (schizophrenia) and could not reason about the wrongness of his acts. On the contested question of detention location, the Court declined to order detention specifically at the Forensic Hospital at Malabar despite both psychiatrists recommending a secure forensic unit, instead ordering detention in a correctional facility or such other place as determined by the Mental Health Review Tribunal, on the basis that limited bed availability at the Forensic Hospital made it inappropriate for the Court to direct placement there ahead of approximately 30 other individuals awaiting transfer. The Court also directed that victim impact statements be provided to the Mental Health Review Tribunal pursuant to s 30N(4) of the Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Act 1999 (NSW).
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