Meat-cleaver wielding man, 37, who broke into a woman’s apartment and raped her is found not guilty because he thought he was in a video game

A man who raped a random woman while armed with a meat cleaver after breaking into her apartment has been cleared of criminal responsibility.

Khateebulla Mirza was acquitted by a court judge on Tuesday on mental health grounds over the rape in Auburn, Sydney’s west, in November 2022.

Mirza was also cleared of indecently touching a woman’s breast in the western suburb of Marrickville on the same day as the Auburn attack, and of touching a woman’s backside outside a building in Zetland the month before.

A court was previously told there was no dispute that the 37-year-old had committed the offences, but that he was under the delusion that he was in a video game at the time.

He pleaded not guilty to eight charges, including sexual touching without consent, aggravated sexual intercourse without consent and assault.

The court heard evidence from two psychiatrists who had treated Mirza and believed his mental state meant he did not know the actions were morally wrong.

Professor David Greenberg appeared as a witness for the prosecution and told the court that Mirza believed the incident in which he raped the woman was part of ‘the game’, that they were both in it and that he had no control over his actions.

“Although he knew the legal wrongfulness, and although he understood the nature of his actions and the quality of his actions, he acted based on a delusional, psychotic belief system where he did not know the moral wrongfulness of his conduct,” Prof. Greenberg said . the court.

Mirza also reported feeling overwhelmed from around 2020 as he believed former NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian was watching him and had emerged as a hologram from the TV and told him to quit his job.

Defense psychiatrist Dr Adam Martin told the court that Mirza smoked cannabis daily and drank a large amount of alcohol in the period leading up to his offence.

Dr. Martin reported that 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 do it with, they are part of the game, that they were digital versions ‘, that they agreed’.

In the year before the attacks, the court was told that Mirza had spent involuntary time in a psychiatric hospital.

In handing down his decision, Judge Ian Bourke noted that although Mirza is not criminally responsible, his actions would have a profound and lasting impact on his victims.

Subject to further submissions from the parties, Mirza will be admitted as a forensic patient under the control of the Mental Health Review Tribunal, and will not be released while he is still considered a risk to himself or the public.

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