Psychosis impaired teen’s understanding he was taking a life in Bandar Utama school murder, court says, rejecting months‑long planning claim

PETALING JAYA, Sept 23 — The Shah Alam High Court has rejected claims that a 16-year-old schoolgirl’s murder in Bandar Utama was meticulously planned for months, concluding that the accused’s psychosis impaired his understanding of the act and that the alleged "plan" stemmed from his delusions. Judge Adlin Abdul Majid noted that merely knowing he was inflicting harm was not enough to establish understanding of the act's nature.

She emphasized that an accused with knowledge of the mechanics but not the reality of their actions cannot be deemed to know the nature of the act. The court accepted that the accused, through immersion in video games, viewed people as "NPCs" and applied this label to others, including students and teachers at the school and his own parents.

The judge also accepted that the accused's severe psychosis had detached him from reality, causing him to believe in a fictional world where the deceased would be reincarnated. The prosecution's argument that the delusions were merely a motive for the killing was rejected, as the delusions affected the accused's ability to comprehend that what he was doing was wrong.

The court also dismissed the claim that the months-long planning showed the accused had the ability to organize and execute a rational crime. Instead, it found that every aspect of the "plan" was generated by the delusional system and reflected a delusional identification rather than rational, self-interested deliberation.