Perth medical student found not guilty of father’s killing on grounds of insanity
A man who once wanted to be a doctor in Perth has been cleared of criminal responsibility for the death of his father and the stabbing of his stepmother despite admitting he had done so; On Friday, a Superior Court judge found him not guilty by reason of insanity.
David Moussa, 32, was studying medicine at the University of Queensland in Brisbane when he began experiencing mental health problems.
He was diagnosed with psychosis and put on medication, but was hallucinating that he was part of a government research project involving his father, 72-year-old Nadi Moussa.
David Moussa told police that his father neglected, drugged, and sexually abused him during his childhood; family members later stated this was untrue.
The defendant said he was “told” by investigators to kill his father and set off on a 4,500-kilometre journey to his father’s home in the northern Perth suburb of Clarkson, armed with a large Japanese kitchen knife.
Once there, Nadi lurked while his wife Teresa Salama and their six-year-old daughter (Moussa’s half-sister) were holidaying in Thailand.
When they returned on February 4 last year, Moussa approached the couple and told them to sit down because he wanted to kill them, took their daughter out and locked the door.
Nadi ran away from home and hid behind her car, but Musa followed her and stabbed her multiple times.
When his wife intervened, he stabbed her too.
Her screams were reflected on the security cameras of nearby neighboring houses.
After killing his father, Moussa calmly called triple zero; The chilling phone call in which he told the operator that his father was dead was played in court during his trial with the judges alone on Tuesday.
Seleme was injured but survived.
Musa later told police that he quickly stabbed his father because he didn’t want him to suffer and said he was sorry. He told the operator that he stabbed himself 50 times in the heart.
“I have no doubt that he is sorry and that he and his family will not forget the events of that day for the rest of their lives,” Judge Terence Palmer said in a statement announcing his decision on Friday. he said.
The hearing heard from a psychiatrist who gave evidence that Moussa was mentally disabled “on the schizophrenia spectrum”.
“I accept Dr Brett’s evidence,” Judge Palmer said. “I am satisfied that David suffered from mental illness and that this deprived him of the capacity to know that he should not have killed his father.
“I find him not guilty on both counts by reason of mental impairment.”
Judge Palmer said this did not mean Moussa would be released into the community, but it did mean he would be subject to certain supervision orders.
What those orders include will be determined on July 23 following the compilation of multiple medical and fitness reports.
