Navua Accused Found Not Guilty, Confined At St Giles

A Navua man who was accused of the murder of a security officer in Waidradra, Navua in 2019, has been found not guilty.

The court ordered that he be confined at the Saint Giles Hospital in Suva.

The not guilty verdict was ruled out of mental impairment due to schizophre­nia by High Court Judge Justice Daniel Goundar in the case of Fabiano Dakai.

Dakai was alleged to have killed 34-year-old Timoci Dogai on February 4, 2019.

While delivering his judgement Jus­tice Goundar on Wednesday said he gave his own close scrutiny of the evi­dence including the reports of the three psychiatrists presented to the court by the counsels.

He said that on February 4, 2019, Dakai suffered from a mental illness namely schizophrenia and that he did not know that striking the deceased on the head with an axe was wrong.

He said the accused consistently re­ferred to Goliath being down in his ad­missions to his relatives during his psy­chiatric assessments.

“He referred to the deceased as Goliath and hit the deceased on the head with an axe or hammer,” Justice Goundar said.

“While he (the deceased) was sleep­ing in the Energy Fiji Limited building, the accused gave a detailed account of how he entered the building, struggling to see somebody’s head with an axe or hammer and discarded the weapon after leaving the scene.

“I am satisfied that the decisions made by the accused are true despite him suf­fering from mental ailments,” Justice Goundar said.

He said Dakai was suffering from a mental illness that resulted in him be­ing in a psychotic state on that day, and believing that the deceased had the abil­ity to harm him through witchcraft and that God had chosen him to kill the de­ceased, like David killing Goliath in the Bible.

Justice Goundar further analysed the evidence of the psychiatrics and said that the psychiatric evidence showed that it was highly likely that the accused was not fully aware that his conduct was wrong because he had delusions of being in war like David and Goliath in the Bible.

“The psychiatric doctor said it is high­ly unlikely that the accused has made up a story to exonerate himself and also ruled out substance induced psychosis and abuse cases,” he said.

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