Father killer acquitted due to mental illness

Updated December 15, 2011 19:15:54

A woman who joined a gun club so she could kill her 70-year-old father has been found not guilty of murder due to mental illness. 

Shamin Fernando, 44, faced a judge-only trial for the 2010 murder of her father Vincent. 

The Supreme Court heard she called him to her Glebe unit in inner Sydney to help with her computer then shot him several times with a pistol. 

The court heard Fernando obtained the gun from the Sydney Pistol Club, where she was a provisional member.

She admitted she joined the club to get the gun.

On one of the gun club's course forms which asked if the member had "any mental illness or other disorders that may prevent you from using a firearm safely", Fernando indicated that she did not.

But the court heard she had chronic schizophrenia which causes her to have delusions.

Justice Peter Hall found her not guilty of murder due to mental illness. 

"Subject to the issue of mental illness, I have earlier indicated that the elements of the charge of murder have been established by the evidence in the Crown case," he said.

"On the question of the accused's mental condition at the time of the fatal incident, the evidence, in my opinion, it is clearly established that the accused does have available to her the defence of mental illness."

Justice Hall ordered Fernando be kept in a mental health unit until she was assessed fit to be released.


First posted December 15, 2011 17:12:44