Not guilty due to insanity

MURDER VERDICT

A MAN who stabbed North Hobart shopkeeper Voula Delios, 68, to death will be held indefinitely in a secure mental health unit after a jury found him not guilty of murder by reason of insanity.

The Supreme Court jury took about 3½ hours yesterday to unanimously find Daryl Royston Wayne Cook, 36, had committed the crime of murder but was insane at the time and therefore was not criminally responsible.

The jurors were told before they began their deliberations that a not guilty by reason of insanity verdict was not an acquittal, and could only be reached if the jurors were satisfied the crime had been committed.

Justice Gregory Geason sentenced Cook immediately after the verdict was given.

“On the basis of the evidence on the trial and the facts and opinions … I do not see any alternative to a restriction order,” Justice Geason said.

He said the issue of public safety outweighed considerations about Cook’s freedom.

He said if Cook, who has been in custody since Mrs Delios’s murder, were to be released now, he was likely to be a danger to the community.

Justice Geason ordered Cook be “detained in a secure mental health unit until that order is discharged by this court”.

Director of Public Prosecutions Daryl Coates, SC, said: “What happened to Mrs Delios was dreadful and horrific.”

During the four-day trial, the jury heard Cook went to Mrs Delios’s shop, the North Hobart Grocer, about lunchtime on July 23, 2016, and stabbed her 22 times, including 10 times to the neck.

He was arrested about 11pm that night at his aunt’s house and later told police he intended to kill Mrs Delios because she was a “heathen”.

“God has been talking to me and telling me some stuff … he’s shown me the path to kill that heathen,” Cook also told police during an interview that was played to the jury.

Despite people in the area rushing to help Mrs Delios, she died on the shop floor.

Two psychiatrists, one called by the defence and one called by the prosecution, both agreed Cook was experiencing a psychotic episode in the lead- up to and at the time of the killing.

“That condition tragically for Voula Delios deprived Mr Cook of knowing that the act he was doing was wrong,” defence lawyer Rochelle Mainwaring said.

The prosecution did not dispute the defence’s position that Cook was insane at the time of the killing, and both Mr Coates and Ms Mainwaring said the jury should be satisfied of a not guilty by reason of insanity verdict.

Justice Geason told the jurors before they began their deliberations that the psychiatrists’ evidence supported such a verdict.

Mr Coates told the jurors it was the Crown’s role to satisfy the jurors beyond reasonable doubt that Cook had committed murder, and it was up to the defence to establish that it was more likely than not Cook was insane at the time.

Mrs Delios’s sister and her daughter Maria left the court in tears after Cook was sentenced.

“She’s not going to come back, is she? No matter what the verdict is,” Maria said.