TAS:Housemate killer was hallucinating: court

AAP General News (Australia)
08-25-2011
TAS:Housemate killer was hallucinating: court

By Patrick Caruana

HOBART, Aug 25 AAP - A Melbourne man accused of murder was mentally ill and probably
thought stabbing his housemate while on holiday in Tasmania was the "right thing to do",
a Hobart court has been told.

Swain Nash Smith, 35, was found dead with a single stab wound in his back on the porch
of his mother's house in Montrose, north of Hobart, on the morning of January 13, 2010.

Nour Assafiri, 31, who lived with Mr Smith in Campbellfield, north of Melbourne, has
pleaded not guilty to his murder.

Mr Smith, his half-brother Kamal Abbaci and Assafiri went on holiday together to Hobart.

Mr Smith and Mr Abbaci stayed in their mother's house, while Assafiri slept outside
in a tent, the court was told.

In her closing address to the Tasmanian Supreme Court on Thursday, defence lawyer Tamara
Jago said Assafiri was suffering from schizoaffective disorder.

"He was a very unwell man," she told the court.

"He was in the grips of this mental disease which has afflicted him for some time.

"He wasn't able to appreciate the wrongfulness of stabbing this man (Mr Smith) ...

indeed he probably thought it was the right thing to do, given his deluded perceptions."

Earlier on Thursday, psychiatrist Lester Walton said Assafiri's impairment affected
his thinking on the night of Mr Smith's death.

"My understanding at the precise time of the killing, this man was in an acute phase
of his illness," Dr Walton told the court.

"He was being bombarded by hallucinations ... he was seriously compromised.

"He was transfixed with these delusions that this person (Mr Smith) was evil. I don't
think he could think carefully think about moral issues at all."

But in his closing address, Director of Public Prosecutions Tim Ellis SC said Assafiri
had intended to kill Mr Smith.

"This all speaks of a degree of composure - he picks up the a big knife ...he grabs
it by the handle ... when Mr Smith's back is turned he plunges it right in the centre
of his back," Mr Ellis told the court.

"By his actions you can gauge his intent.

"When he stabbed Swain Smith, he meant to kill him."

The jury of seven men and four women will retire to consider its verdict on Friday.

AAP pbc

KEYWORD: ASSAFIRI WRAP

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