An Australian man who broke into a random 26-year-old woman's apartment and raped her while armed with a meat cleaver has been cleared of criminal responsibility because he thought he was in a video game.
37-year-old Khateebulla Mirza was cleared by a New South Whales judge on Tuesday for the rape which occurred in November 2022 in Sydney. The judge cited mental health issues in the decision, per 9news.com. He was additionally cleared of 2 more offenses from the same day as the rape, touching a woman's breast and touching a separate woman's backside out in public.
Mirza had pleaded not guilty to 8 charges including aggravated sexual intercourse without consent and assault. His defense had told a court that there was no dispute Mirza committed the acts, but that he thought he was taking part in a video game at the time of the rape.
Mirza was swiftly arrested after the attack, which Sex Crimes Squad commander Jayne Doherty had told reporters at the time was "horrendous," per The Sydney Morning Herald.
“He assaulted her a number of times and hit her in the back of the head with the handle of the meat cleaver before he sexually assaulted her,” Doherty said. “It’s horrendous, she’s in what she believes to be her secure home unit.”
A witness for the prosecution, Professor David Greenburg, told the court Mirza was under the delusion that he and the woman he raped were players in a video game, the assault on the woman was part of "the game," and Mirza had no control over his actions.
"Although he knew the legal wrongfulness, and although he understood the nature of his actions, the quality of his actions, he was acting on a delusional, psychotic belief system where he did not know the moral wrongfulness of his behavior," Greenberg stated.
The court also heard from two psychiatrists who had treated Mirza and believed his mental state meant he did not know the acts were morally wrong. One of the psychiatrists, Dr. Adam Martin, stated that the defendant reported smoking cannabis and drinking large amounts of alcohol in the period leading up to the rape.
Martin stated Mirza told him "the voices kept telling me that if you do this, you unlock the next stage of the game" and "the person you are doing it to, they're part of the game, that they were digital versions, that they were consenting to it."
The defendant also reported he believed that former New South Whales premier Gladys Berejiklian was monitoring him and had popped out of his TV as a hologram to tell him to quit his job. He reported feeling overwhelmed by this since around 2020. The court was also informed he had spent time in a mental hospital involuntarily in the year leading up to the attacks.
Mirza will reportedly be "committed as a forensic patient under the control of the Mental Health Review Tribunal, and will not be released while still deemed a risk to himself or the public," according to 9news.com.
Judge Ian Bourke noted Mirza's actions would have a profound and lasting impact on his victims despite the defendant not being criminally responsible.
