A woman will stay in supervised care under the intellectual disability legislation for two years after she was found unfit to stand trial for an Akaroa knife attack.
Christine Tucker, 65, had been charged with wounding another woman with intent to cause grievous bodily harm. A hearing in May found that she had committed the offence but could not stand trial.
The case was remanded for a hearing in the Christchurch District Court yesterday to decide how the case should be disposed of.
An assessment under the Criminal Procedures (Mentally Impaired Persons) Act was done ahead of the latest hearing before Judge Paul Kellar.
After considering the report, he made an order that Tucker should be held in supervised care for two years, which would include implimentation of a series of recommendations made by the psychiatrist.
Judge Kellar said the supervision needed to be sufficient to ensure Tucker’s safety and the safety of others, bearing in mind the offence.
The court had earlier been told that Tucker had no memory of the stabbing which took place in the victim’s Akaroa home about 2.45pm on February 9.
Tucker, who lived nearby, entered the house through a back door and went up behind the victim who was sitting in a chair, and stabbed her with a knife. The victim had courageously disarmed Tucker in the scuffle that followed, Judge Brian Callaghan had commented during the hearing in May.
That hearing considered reports from a clinical psychologist and consultant psychiatrist who reached similar conclusions that Tucker was intellectually disabled and unfit to stand trial.
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