R v Rawson
[2019] NZHC 1381
•18 June 2019
IN THE HIGH COURT OF NEW ZEALAND ROTORUA REGISTRY
I TE KŌTI MATUA O AOTEAROA
TE ROTORUA-NUI-A-KAHUMATAMOMOE ROHE
CRI-2018-063-2383
[2019] NZHC 1381
THE QUEEN v
MARK ANDREW RAWSON
Hearing: 18 June 2019 Appearances:
A Gordon for Informant L Te Kani for Defendant
Judgment:
18 June 2019
ORAL JUDGMENT OF TOOGOOD J
R v RAWSON [2019] NZHC 1381 [18 June 2019]
Introduction
[1] Mark Rawson faces one charge of attempted murder1 and two charges of assault with a weapon.2 He has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.3 The purpose of today’s hearing under the Criminal Procedure (Mentally Impaired Persons) Act 2003 (the CP(MIP) Act) is to determine whether the Court can be satisfied on the basis of expert evidence that Mr Rawson was insane at the time of the offending.4 The Crown and the defence agree that he is. My role is to act as a check on that concurrence.5
The facts
[2] The background facts giving rise to the charge are contained in an agreed summary prepared for today’s hearing.
[3] In the early hours of 2 July 2018, Mr Rawson was at home with his family at an address in Rotorua. Mr Rawson was 19 at the time. He and his brother were watching television. At a certain point, the brothers began to argue and Mr Rawson’s brother called out for help. This attracted the attention of their father, who came into the room.
[4] Mr Rawson’s father approached Mr Rawson in an attempt to calm him down. Mr Rawson took up a large branch that was beside the fireplace and swung it at his father with all his might, yelling out that he was going to kill him. Mr Rawson’s father managed to avoid the blow. But Mr Rawson swung at him again, this time connecting with his shoulder. Mr Rawson then struck his father again in the same place.
[5] At this point, Mr Rawson’s stepmother, Ms Knox, came into the room. She implored Mr Rawson to leave his father alone. Mr Rawson turned his attention to Ms Knox, striking her multiple times with the branch. He then let go of the branch and said that he would stop; but he did not relent. Instead, he took up a pair of scissors
1 Crimes Act 1961, s 173; the maximum penalty is 14 years’ imprisonment.
2 Section 202C; the maximum penalty is five years’ imprisonment.
3 Crimes Act 1961, s 23.
4 Criminal Procedure (Mentally Impaired Persons) Act 2003, s 20(2)(c).
5 R v Tu [2015] NZHC 3045 at [12].
from the mantelpiece and swung them at Ms Knox, striking her on the hip. Ms Knox retreated, but Mr Rawson pursued her. There was a scuffle during which Ms Knox managed to grab Mr Rawson by the wrist, but he responded by taking hold of her hair. He then attempted to stab Ms Knox in the temple. Mr Rawson landed three blows to Ms Knox’s person: one to the left cheek, one to the left ear and one to the finger and webbing of her left hand which she had raised in defence. After this, Ms Knox managed to break free of Mr Rawson’s hold and fled the room.
[6] When interviewed by the Police, Mr Rawson said that he had disliked his stepmother for a long time. He said he wished to kill her and had picked up the scissors with the intention of doing so. Mr Rawson said he was aiming for Ms Knox’s eye, neck and heart.
The law on insanity
[7] The law of insanity, that provides a defence to criminal offending, is governed by s 23 of the Crimes Act 1961. The starting point is that everyone is presumed to be sane until the contrary is proved.6
[8]Two elements then need to be established for the defence:7
(a)First, the defendant must prove that he or she was suffering from a disease of the mind at the time the offence was committed.
(b)Second, he or she must establish that the disease meant that –
(i)he or she was incapable of knowing the nature and quality of the act constituting the offence at the time the offence was committed; or
(ii)he or she was incapable of knowing that the act was morally wrong having regard to the commonly accepted standards of right and wrong.
6 Section 23(1).
7 Section 23(2); see also R v Armstrong [2014] NZHC 3150 at [8].
The evidence
[9]I have been provided with reports from three psychiatrists.
Dr Kumar’s report
[10] The first is from Dr Shailesh Kumar, a specialist forensic psychiatrist, dated 20 September 2018.
[11] Dr Kumar reports that Mr Rawson was a somewhat troublesome child, often displaying “oppositional behaviour”. Though shy, he had a good group of friends. He became more withdrawn and his behaviour deteriorated from the age of 12 when his parents divorced. This is corroborated by Mr Rawson’s mother. She says Mr Rawson started having angry outbursts around the time of the breakup of her marriage, which she describes as acrimonious. She says Mr Rawson witnessed his father physically abusing her.
[12] Mr Rawson left school at 17 without formal qualification, working odd jobs and completing a six-week course through Sport with Bay of Plenty. He reports not having been in a romantic relationship. Mr Rawson tried cannabis when he was 17 but did not use it regularly. But Mr Rawson admits to having used cannabis on the night of the offending in an edible form with a friend. He does not drink much alcohol but has experimented with magic mushrooms.
[13] Mr Rawson was evasive when asked by Dr Kumar about his psychiatric history. He did admit to having spoken with a psychiatrist on two occasions in September 2017, after an incident when he ran away from home following a verbal altercation with his father and was found in a bus shelter. Prior to this he had been refusing to look at the television screen or answer the phone. Mr Rawson was not attributed with any mental illness at this time.
[14] Mr Rawson’s mother contacted mental health services again in October 2017. He had not been eating and claimed he could hear God’s voice at times. He was also quiet and isolative. Mr Rawson was reviewed by Dr Nath on 13 November 2017. Dr Nath found no evidence of mental illness and suspected the possibility of
underlying autism spectrum disorder. No medication was prescribed. Dr Nath reviewed him again on 15 November 2017 and prescribed him with Aripiprazole, which Mr Rawson did not take. This was Mr Rawson’s last contact with mental health services until after the offending.
[15] Mr Rawson’s mother reports him having an outburst, on 24 June 2018, claiming that he was a prophet and declaring “doom and gloom” on her and her partner. She says he remained agitated after this and displayed “unusual” behaviour immediately before the offending.
[16] Mr Rawson describes himself as a Christian and acknowledges that his religious views might be regarded as extreme. He has read the Bible cover to cover and believes this makes him a “special person”. He has conducted Bible studies while incarcerated and invited other inmates to join him. Mr Rawson said he believed he was God’s special servant with a special destiny
[17] Dr Kumar asked Mr Rawson about his history of “perceptual disturbance”. Mr Rawson acknowledged hearing “cringey noises” at home which he tried to block out with earplugs. He often awoke at night to hear his stepmother screaming at his father. Invariably, he would wake up around 2:00 am and think about stabbing her. These thoughts were constantly present two months before the offending.
[18] Dr Kumar summarises Mr Rawson’s psychiatric assessment in the immediate aftermath of the offending. In brief it is this:
(a)He expressed suicidal thoughts to the Police and divulged having used cannabis and “feeling high”. He said he had also heard the voice of God “relocating his hip joints” which he associated with biblical stories about Joseph.
(b)He did not express any remorse, instead believing that he was a special person in unity with God.
(c)His initial psychiatric screening revealed disjointed thought processes which were tangential and dominated by religious themes. His mood was incongruent, and he had difficulty holding back laughter when discussing the offending. He displayed a good understanding of Court processes but refused a lawyer as he was reliant on God to defend him. A provisional diagnosis of schizoaffective disorder with abnormal personality traits against a background of childhood trauma was suspected.
[19] Speaking of the offending itself, Mr Rawson said he was convinced that God was working through him because his father had committed adultery by having sexual relations with someone other than his mother:
He said “it says in the bible a beating rod on the back of a fool can remove all wickedness”… He was adamant that the rod he used could remove wickedness from his father because “it says in Deuteronomy a son shouldn’t strike his father or mother”. He said he had only realised this after this incident and was therefore partially remorseful for the assault on his father. He was however adamant that God’s holy spirit was working through him when he stabbed his stepmother.
[20] Mr Rawson also said that using cannabis had “opened his spirit” and allowed him to talk with God:
“I had a talk with God it was like a prayer, sat in stillness and I tried to hear him leading”. He said he was not aware of what leading meant at the time of the index alleged offending but had later on understood that “holy spirits prompt you to do things for good reasons”.
[21] Mr Rawson said throughout the offending he was working under the influence of a spiritual feeling he could not explain.
[22] Dr Kumar concludes that Mr Rawson presents with a two-year history of experiencing delusions, hallucinations and persistent negative symptoms. He diagnoses him with schizophrenia. He says he does not fulfil the criteria for autism spectrum disorder. As to whether Mr Rawson could be considered insane in a legal sense, Dr Kumar says:
Given the stage of proceedings I have not addressed the issue of insanity in detail in this report. As an initial steer I would like to respectfully state that
the defence of not guilty by reason of insanity may be available to Mr Rawson. He has a diagnosis of Schizophrenia which is usually accepted by the courts as a ‘disease of the mind’. Based on the information provided by him, by his mother and the contemporaneous account in the psychiatric records, it appears Mr Rawson was experiencing florid psychotic symptoms namely delusions of grandeur and religiosity which could have impacted on his actions around the index alleged offending. There could be a nexus between his psychopathology and the alleged offending.
[23] Dr Kumar also notes that Mr Rawson used cannabis prior to the offending. He says this may have “impaired his judgment and caused disinhibition”. He also notes Mr Rawson’s animosity towards his stepmother and father for “committing adultery”. Dr Kumar says:
These factors, intoxication and serious assaults driven by deep rooted anger as opposed to psychotic symptoms would argue against the possibility of insanity.
Dr Street’s report
[24] The second report is by Dr David Street, a consultant psychiatrist, dated 28 February 2019.
[25] Mr Rawson expressed a number of delusional ideas to Dr Street. Overall, it seems that he may have opened up more than he did when speaking with Dr Kumar several months earlier. Among the things Mr Rawson told Dr Street was that bad information was like snot. If he swallowed it, it made him sick. This was why he did not like reading books which he described as “idols”; reading meant taking in bad information that could generate snot. Despite this, Mr Rawson read books anyway because he was “a sinner and addicted”. Mr Rawson also told Dr Street that he heard God’s voice, and recently it had told him to do tai chi.
[26] When discussing the lead-up to the offending, Mr Rawson said that “he was having prophetic dreams that he was to build an altar to God, that he was not bowing down to giant bronze centaurs or bulls”; and that voices were telling him he was going to build a city and, if not, he would be turned into cattle. Just before the offending Mr Rawson said he began to prophesise about his relatives. He said that if they did not change calamity would befall them.
[27] Mr Rawson then described the alleged offending to Dr Street in some detail. I cite directly from the doctor’s report:
He said that he was having marijuana, marshmallows and chocolate and that he began to prophesise. He said that he saw himself as an old man ready to die; he went to the room and got a stick from a walk that he used as a staff. He said they were watching TV and it was wrong because of the idolatry. He had a vision providing how he was going to die “on a battlefield, sword through my throat to the top of my brain” and then went to his room and saw a bright light welcoming him to Heaven and collapsed like a dead person breathing. He described going in and out of a trance and saw in his head a picture of a father and son holding hands. He said father was son. He then said God’s spirit took control of my body, he took me to the sitting room where my brother and his friend were yelling “I knew what you have done”. At this point he explained that what that was he didn’t know. He said his father then came in, brother and friend left; he began to yell at his father. He said, “I was the father”. He clinched [sic] his fist. His father grabbed me and we wrestled. He said he grabbed the stick from his room “God smashed Dad with the stick”. He did it to remove any evil. He said you must reprove with the rod. He said his father went to the sitting toom and that he chased him hitting him with the stick. He said that his stepmother came in and grabbed his wrist “God started to attack her, God told me to grab the scissors and use them on her, she hung onto my wrist”. He then said his father grabbed him and she called the Police and then described falling to the ground “I felt like I was dying, like God had left my body”. He asked his father for water; he said that it was special water that had been boiled and blessed. He said his father had carried him to his bed and the Police came. When his father asked him why he did what he had done, he replied “because you left us and took your fire and gave it to someone else”.
[28] Dr Street also diagnoses Mr Rawson with schizophrenia. Although a diagnosis of substance-induced psychosis could be considered, because of his use of cannabis earlier in the evening, this is unlikely given:
(a)Mr Rawson had been demonstrating prodromal symptoms of psychosis since late 2017;
(b)the time course of his disorder matches schizophrenia with increased isolation, religiosity, maintenance of bizarre delusions and decreased overall function; and
(c)such qualities have persisted since the alleged offending.
[29] Based on Mr Rawson’s account, Dr Street says the offending appears to have been done in the context of religious delusions.
[30] As for whether Mr Rawson appreciated the moral quality of his actions, Dr Street makes the following points:
(a)Mr Rawson described God taking control of his body and forcing him to perform acts with him just an observer; and because it was God acting through him, the acts felt righteous.
(b)According to his father, Mr Rawson said, “I’m not punishing you, Dad, Jehovah is.”
(c)Mr Lawson also made comments that he had tried to hurt his father because he was an adulterer, and that he tried to kill his stepmother because she “sucked the life out of us and broke my family up”.
Dr van Zeist-Jongman’s report
[31] Dr Annette van Zeist-Jongman, also a psychiatrist, has been engaged with Mr Rawson’s mental health care since before she first reported to the Court on 14 February 2019. Dr van Zeist-Jongman reported then that when she met with Mr Rawson on 11 February 2019, in connection with a proposal that he be granted bail, he was “clearly delusional”. He informed her that:
“God was flowing through his body and that he now was a part of God and that God could take control over his body and could make him do certain things whenever it pleased God.” He stated that the index offence had been God’s will and God’s action that he assaulted his step-mother as she deserved punishment for starting a relationship with Mark’s father, and through that, breaking up the family.
[32] Dr van Zeist-Jongman added that Mr Rawson had no insight into his mental health issues and that by reason of his psychotic delusions he was convinced that he had no mental illness but was an instrument of God.
[33] When Dr van Zeist-Jongman reported next to the Court, on 9 April 2019, she said:
Concerning the offences he is charged with, Mr Rawson tends to present with two slightly different versions. In one version he states that God had given
him the command to harm his father and step-mother in order to free his father from a relationship that was harmful to him. At other moments Mr Rawson informs us that at the time of the alleged offending God had taken possession of his body and had assaulted his father and step-mother.
[34] In her third report, dated 1 May 2019, Dr van Zeist-Jongman addressed more directly the question of whether Mr Rawson was insane at the time of the alleged offending within the meaning of s 23 of the Crimes Act. The psychiatrist’s understanding of the alleged facts, now admitted by Mr Rawson for the purposes of today’s hearing, does not need repeating. She noted, among other things, that she had taken extensive information about Mr Rawson’s life history and mental health history from the “excellent report of Dr Kumar dated 20.9.18.” Dr van Zeist-Jongman also confirmed that she had been Mr Rawson’s treating psychiatrist/responsible clinician during the entire period of his remand in Waikeria Prison and also during most of his two inpatient admissions to Waikato Hospital, so that she had seen Mr Rawson on many occasions prior to her latest interview at the Henry Rongomau Bennett Centre on 24 April 2019. She said that Mr Rawson reported to her on that date:
That he still hears the voice of God, mainly in the afternoon, but that he has to go to a quiet space in the ward and focus to be able to communicate with God. He informed me that God strengthens him in his faith, which lifts his mood and encourages him to attend activities in the ward. Mr Rawson still harbours the conviction that he is a very special messenger from God who was possessed by God at the time when he assaulted his father and step-mother, and he is convinced that such possessions could happen in the future due to his very special position.
[35] Referring to Mr Rawson’s cognitive functions, Dr van Zeist-Jongman said that Mr Rawson lacked insight into his mental illness and that “his judgement remains somewhat impaired”.
[36] Dr van Zeist-Jongman’s opinion is that a defence of not guilty by reason of insanity would be available to Mr Rawson. He was clearly suffering from a major mental illness at the time of the offending, in the psychiatrist’s view, and his behaviour was greatly influenced by his illness as he had the delusional conviction that God possessed his body and ordered him to assault his father and step-mother, which he was not able to resist. Dr van Zeist-Jongman expressed the view that he was, and still is, of the opinion that following God’s direct order was the morally right thing to do. She agreed with the opinions of the other psychiatrists on those matters.
Conclusions
[37] I am satisfied, on the basis of the expert evidence provided, that Mr Rawson was insane within the meaning of s 23 of the Crimes Act 1961 at the time of the commission of the offences of assault with a weapon (two charges) and attempted murder on 2 July 2018.
[38] It is beyond dispute that the evidence of the three psychiatrists, supported by other evidence surrounding the commission of the offences, proves that Mr Rawson was suffering from a disease of the mind at the time of the offending; namely, schizophrenia. On the question of whether the disease meant that Mr Rawson was incapable of knowing the nature of the acts constituting the offences at the time they were committed, Dr Street suggests that he may have appreciated the nature of the act but qualifies that observation by saying that the acts of beating his father and the use of his scissors to attack Ms Knox:
... appear to have been done in a context of religious delusions that “to remove any evil you must reprove with the rod”.
[39] Further, Mr Rawson’s father reported to the Police that at the time of the attack Mr Rawson said, “I’m not punishing you Dad, Jehovah is.” Dr van Zeist-Jongman appears to accept Mr Rawson’s conviction that at the time of the alleged offending his body was taken over and possessed by God and that he was therefore to be considered innocent of the alleged offending. She recorded that he considered he had been ordered by God to assault his father and step-mother, a direction he was not able to resist.
[40] I am satisfied, therefore, that although Mr Rawson may have appreciated that what he was doing was assaulting both his father and his step-mother, the schizophrenic psychosis from which he was suffering meant that he was incapable of knowing the quality of the acts constituting the offences at the time the offences were committed. That is, he did not apprehend that they were voluntary acts for which he was responsible.
[41] Alternatively, the evidence establishes to my satisfaction that as a result of schizophrenia, Mr Rawson was incapable of knowing that his acts were morally
wrong, having regard to the commonly accepted standards of right and wrong, because he was merely acting in response to a direction from God.
Orders
[42] Accordingly, I direct under s 23(1) of the CP(MIP) Act that inquiries be made to determine the most suitable method of dealing with Mr Rawson under s 24 or s 25 of that Act. Specifically, those enquiries will address whether he should be detained as a special patient under the Mental Health (Compulsory Assessment and Treatment) Act 1992 or as a special care recipient under the Intellectual Disability (Compulsory Care and Rehabilitation) Act 2003. I request that the inquiries be conducted by Dr van Zeist-Jongman, if she is available, or by either Dr Kumar or Dr Street if they are available. Otherwise, the inquiries may be conducted by any other health assessor who is a psychiatrist.
[43] Under s 23(2), I remand Mr Rawson to the Henry Rongomau Bennett Centre for the purposes of those inquiries. Section 23(4) of the Act requires that the inquiries I have just ordered must be completed as quickly as practicable and, in any event, within 30 days after the date of this order; that is, by 18 July 2019.
[44] Accordingly, I direct the Registrar to set this matter down for a hearing to address the application of ss 24 and 25 of the Act as soon as possible after that date. I will not be available to conduct the disposition hearing but, as Lang J observed in his Minute of 10 May 2019, any other judge of the Court may preside at the second hearing.
[45] I thank counsel for their assistance and acknowledge the help the medical practitioners have provided to the Court.
………………………..
Toogood J