Devil, dead man

The man who was accused of murdering Samuel Culling says the devil and Culling gave him instructions when he viciously attacked prison guards and inmates with crude weapons.

But the jury who found Hemi Te Poono not guilty of Culling’s murder were not aware of that fact, with a judge deciding it could not safely be put before them.

Te Poono was sentenced in the High Court in Wellington on Monday to eight years and six months’ jail for attacking six people while in custody awaiting trial for Culling’s murder, as well as other minor offending.

A High Court decision from 2016, which can only be reported now as Te Poono has been sentenced, gives more detail about why he committed the seemingly inexplicable attacks.

In his decision declining a Crown application to have all of Te Poono’s charges dealt with at one trial, Justice David Collins said forensic psychiatrist Dr Justin Barry-walsh found Te Poono was suffering from methamphetamine-induced psychosis.

‘‘Dr Barry-walsh’s report records that [Te Poono’s] attacks on Corrections officers and other