Homeless man who trashed health centre suffered from mental health problems, court holds

A homeless Somali man who wrought havoc at the Floriana Health Centre last month has been absolved of criminal responsibility for his actions on the grounds of insanity, but was ordered to remain in custody at Mount Carmel Hospital to undergo treatment for his mental illness.



20-year-old Abdimalik Ahmed Mohamed had caused damage to computers and parts of the health centre's reception area when he went on the rampage during the evening of April 8.

The cause of the Somali man's destructive behaviour, which caused the Health Centre to be closed for a number of days, appeared to be the result of synthetic cannabinoids and possibly cocaine, according to a court appointed psychiatrist.

Psychiatrist David Cassar, had reported the accused as “suffering from an acute psychotic state at the time of the incident...and had most probably been suffering from this state for a period of at least one week.”

The man's mental state at the time was affected by delusions of reference and persecution and had been under the influence of mind-altering drugs, the physician reported and his psychotic state was “possibly precipitated and or maintained by his substance abuse.”


The accused had injured himself in the fracas and required hospital treatment, as did a security guard, who suffered cuts caused by broken glass.

Abdimalik was accused of wilfully causing damage to the health centre, causing bodily harm to the security guard, breaching the peace and relapsing.

During his arraignment, when asked whether he was pleading guilty or not guilty to the charges, the accused had replied “everything you say is true, but in my mind it is not real.”

In her decision, Magistrate Consuelo Scerri Herrera examined the implications of insanity on criminal responsibility at length. At law, for a person to be held criminally responsible for an act, both the actus reus – the illicit act, in this case the causing of damage and the mens rea or criminal intent must have been present at the moment the offence was committed.

The magistrate quoted a 1955 paper on the reformulation of the defence of insanity in the Australian Criminal Code, which had refined the ubiquitous “McNaughten Rules” definition of insanity – which focuses on whether a defendant knew the nature of the crime or understood right from wrong at the time it was committed - with a test of the accused's awareness of the nature of, the act together with control over his conduct.

The court held that in this case, the capacity of the man's intellect and his free will were both lacking and therefore, while declaring him innocent of the charges on the grounds of insanity, ordered that the accused be treated at Mount Carmel Hospital, where he is “to remain under their care and custody.”