“An obsessive anti-abortionist who murdered a security guard has quoted Bible passages to a Supreme Court judge to try to prove he is not psychotic.” Fwded from forteana…
Date: Fri, 26 Jul 2002 07:15:31 +1000
From: Peter Darben (spam-protected)
To: “Forteana List”: ;
Subject: Chock full of sig potential
my favourites are the first and second-last paragraphs
—– (from The Herald Sun (Melbourne) 26.7.02)
Abortion clinic killer: I’m not psychotic By WAYNE HOWELL, Supreme Court reporter July 26, 2002
AN obsessive anti_abortionist who murdered a security guard has quoted Bible passages to a Supreme Court judge to try to prove he is not psychotic.
Peter James Knight, who killed Steven Rogers at a family planning clinic on July 16 last year, said he objected to taking oaths on religious grounds.
In April, a jury found Knight guilty of the killing. Knight was armed with a Winchester rifle and 14 rounds of ammunition.
For months after his arrest, Knight was known as Mr X because he refused to talk to police or reveal his name.
At a brief pre-sentence hearing yesterday, Knight agreed to the publicising of two psychiatrists’ opinions and of a letter he wrote to Justice Bernard Teague.
In his letter, Knight rejected psychiatrist Dr Ron Senadipathy’s opinion that he was psychotic. He said his opposition to taking oaths was not delusional but was based on biblical scripture.
“Firstly, James, chapter 5 verse 12 says: ‘My friends, above all else, don’t take an oath. You must not swear by heaven or earth or by anything else. Yes or no is all you need to say. If you … anything more you will
be condemned,” he told the judge in his letter.
Dr Senadipathy told the court Knight’s delusion about taking oaths had led to his living in a humpy in a forest so he did not have to take oaths or sign declarations by earning income or claiming social security.
The psychiatrist said Knight was a highly dangerous man who suffered chronic paranoid schizophrenia. “He committed the crime driven by his delusional interpretation of the Bible and moral values he developed accordingly,” Dr Senadipathy said in his report.
But another psychiatrist, Dr Justin Barry Walsh, said Knight was not mentally ill, just “odd”.
Knight believed taking oaths was childish nonsense and violated the Bible’s teachings.
Knight also said he had designed a perpetual motion machine and a better mousetrap, but was reluctant to give any detail for fear of being thought a nutcase.
The case was adjourned.
Herald Sun
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