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Deranged man who bashed a retired cop to death with a claw hammer after fatally stabbing his grandmother during a psychotic rampage is found not guilty due to mental illness
- Murray Deakin stabbed grandfather with a pen-knife and killed his grandmother
- Then bashed retired cop to death with hammer as he thought he was a ‘demon’
- Court found Deakin couldn’t tell right from wrong in a schizophrenic psychosis
A man who killed his grandmother and a retired police officer during a psychotic episode has been found not guilty of murder because of his mental illness.
Murray Deakin’s bloody rampage began on June 1, 2018 when he discovered his motorbike had been moved from the driveway of the Bega house where he lived with his parents.
After asking his grandfather Thomas Winner where his bike was, he stabbed the older man with a pen-knife.
Murray Deakin (pictured) has been found not guilty of the horrific crimes as he could not tell right from wrong due to a psychotic episode caused by schizophrenia
He then stabbed his grandmother Gail Winner, who had been unloading groceries from the car, four times in the chest, back and neck.
He later told doctors he thought his grandparents were vampires.
Deakin then led police on two dangerous car chases.
Retired highway patrolman Mick Horne saw Deakin speeding, called triple zero, followed him and eventually pulled up beside him when Deakin stopped.
Footage recorded on his wife’s phone shows Mr Horne asking Deakin what he is doing and whose car he is driving.
Deakin made a snarling sound, turned around expressionless and told Mr Horne to ‘follow the code’.
When Mr Horne asked for his name, Deakin sighed then pulled a hammer from his backpack.
Mr Horne turned and ran, but Deakin hit him on the head multiple times as Melanie Horne watched on from the car.
Deakin later said he thought Mr Horne was a demon.
Pictured: Retired police officer Michael Horne who died when he was hit repeatedly in the back of the head by a hammer by Murray Deakin who was having a psychotic episode
Mr Horne died two days later. Gail Winner died that afternoon, and her husband survived.
Justice Robert Beech-Jones on Friday found that Deakin could not tell right from wrong at the time of the attacks because he was gripped by a psychotic state caused by schizophrenia.
Three psychiatrists earlier gave evidence supporting the finding. The expert evidence caused prosecutors to accept on Wednesday that Deakin’s plea that he was not guilty be reason of mental illness was made out, stopping the NSW Supreme Court trial.
Police forensics officers attend the crime scene after Deakin stabbed both his grandparents
The court found an alternative explanation – that Deakin’s psychosis was caused by drug use, including cannabis and LSD – did not ‘withstand much scrutiny’.
Deakin grew from an awkward, maladjusted youth into a ‘reclusive and seriously obsessed’ young adult, Justice Beech-Jones said.
As a child he obsessively washed his hands, obsessively removed and grinded tap fittings, and added weights to doors to make them close faster.
At 18, he told his father he had been hearing voices. An employer at a nursery described him as ‘unemployable’ and said he was obsessive with certain tasks.
Retired police officer Michael Horne (left) who was clubbed to death with a claw hammer by an insane man while his horrified wife looked on from their car
His deterioration suggested developing schizophrenia.
Even if Deakin had taken LSD which precipitated his psychosis, that would only be a symptom of his schizophrenia, the judge said.
Deakin will be held in custody, with his case to be reviewed twice a year. He will only be released on an order from the mental health tribunal.
Justice Beech-Jones expressed the court’s condolences to the Winner and Horne families.
‘(The Winners’) devotion was such that they were prepared to assume the burden of looking after their troubled grandson in their advancing years,’ he said.
Mr Horne died after following his instinct to protect the public, he said.
‘All three primary victims deserve not to be defined or remembered by how they died, but how they lived,’ the judge said.
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