‘Every minute . . . Jo is in our hearts’
The parents of slain jogger Joanne Pert have spoken out about her death, saying it has left them with sleepless nights and a ‘‘huge hole’’ in their lives.
The killer of the mother of two was found not guilty of her murder by reason of insanity in the High Court at Auckland yesterday.
Tevita Mafi Filo, 25, was due to face a jury trial this week.
Instead, a short insanity hearing was held during which Justice Murray Gilbert ruled a trial would not go ahead, following evidence from psychiatric experts who said Filo was suffering from a ‘‘complex delusional system’’.
Justice Gilbert ordered Filo be detained indefinitely as a special patient at the Mason Clinic, a secure psychiatric unit.
Pert’s parents Kevin and Jan said Filo’s ‘‘unforgivable, selfish action’’ had left them shattered and angry.
‘‘When we do finally sleep we end up waking in a cold sweat wondering about the last moments of our much loved daughter’s life.
‘‘The horrendous death of our most beautiful, most talented, highly intellectual, much loved sister, wonderful mother of two beautiful children has left an open wound in our hearts which will never heal over.
‘‘Every minute, every hour, every day Jo is in our hearts.’’
Filo has schizophrenia and also suffers from end stage renal failure and completes dialysis three times a week.
He has been in the custody of the Mason Clinic since his arrest.
The 25-year-old was charged with Pert’s murder after Pert’s body was found on the lawn of a Remuera home on January 7 this year. Pert had been out jogging at the time.
Suppression orders prevent publication of how Pert died.
He was also charged with a string of other crimes including burglary, possession of a weapon and being on property unlawfully. Those charges have since been withdrawn by the Crown, however he still faced the charges of murder and two counts of indecent assault - the latter of which he was also cleared of.
At the hearing yesterday, psychiatrist Mhairi Duff told Justice Murray Gilbert that Filo didn’t believe he had killed ‘‘a real live person’’.
Filo was under the belief that he lived in an ‘‘alternate world’’ governed by a controller.
He suffered from auditory hallucinations where the people in this world gave him instructions, she said.
‘‘He continues to believe that the person he killed was not a live human being but rather, that they were a computeranimated artificial being,’’ Duff said.
’’He didn’t believe the individual was dead.’’
He believed that he had to carry out missions in order to escape from the virtual world, and believed that once he handed himself into police he could return to the real world, she said.
She said there was ‘‘no question’’ in her mind that Filo should continue to be detained at the Mason Clinic as a special patient, in order to protect the public from him.
He continued to present with a range of symptoms and still laboured under the delusion that people weren’t real which made him a ‘‘high risk’’ to the public, she said.
Crown prosecutor Brian Dickey told Justice Gilbert the Crown agreed the only ‘‘reasonable verdict’’ was one of not guilty by reason of insanity.
Justice Gilbert said he was satisfied that the ‘‘unchallenged’’ expert evidence showed Filo was insane at the time he offended. - Fairfax NZ