Hazara Nation

20.march,2008
ABC

A Sudanese refugee who admitted killing his wife at their Newcastle home, in the New South Wales Hunter region, has been found not guilty of her murder on the grounds of mental illness.The 43-year-old man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, hit his 40-year-old wife on the head with a hammer and a pipe in July 2006.

The couple's one-year-old daughter was found lying next to her with blood on her clothes.

The woman was taken to hospital but died.

The man later handed himself in to police. He said he had been told in a dream to kill his wife or she would kill him.

Justice Graham Barr accepted the man was suffering from schizophrenia. He said the man's delusional belief robbed him of the ability to know what he was doing was wrong.

The judge ordered that the man be detained in the psychiatric ward of the Long Bay Prison hospital until his case is assessed by the Mental Health Review Tribunal.