Accused committed to Psychiatric Ward [1]
Wednesday, August 26, 2020 - 19:36
A 41-year-old man who injured another man with a shovel suffers from mental illness.
He was declared by the Supreme Court a forensic patient and was committed to the Psychiatric Ward at Vaiola Hospital.
A forensic patient is a person who has been found unfit to be tried for an offence and ordered to be detained in a mental facility.
On July 27, ‘Okusitino Mo’unga pleaded not guilty to two counts of serious bodily harm and wilful damage to a motor vehicle, in an incident on March 10, 2019 at Talasiu.
The Crown submitted that he committed the serious bodily harm on Finau ‘Ofahulu (39) whom he repeatedly hit with a shovel injuring his right hand. He also used the shovel to repeatedly hit the car the victim was in.
The car belonged to Siosiua Langilangi who filed a complaint for damages quoted at $11,796 pa'anga.
Hon Mr Justice Niu in a judgment this month, declared the accused as a forensic patient for the purposes of the Mental Health Act, and ordered that he be taken into the custody and care of the Psychiatric Ward.
The judge said the psychiatric report of the authorised psychiatrist in June found that the accused was suffering from mental and behavioural disorders, and that it was most likely he was overwhelmed by delusions.
It was also the psychiatrist's opinion, that the accused was insane for the purposes of Section 17(1)(b) in that he was suffering from such a state of mental disease, that deprived him of the capacity to understand that such act or omission was wrong, he said.
In addition, the Crown submitted the accused be accordingly detained as a forensic patient in the custody of the psychiatric ward.
The judge was satisfied that in the circumstances of this case it was the correct thing to do.