Christopher Harvey found not guilty of Mid North rampage due to mental incompetence

A man who pleaded guilty to traumatising two families has been found mentally incompetent after a court agreed he had a psychotic episode after taking MDMA.

A man charged over a rampage where one family was rammed off the road before crashing into another car and attacking its occupants before stealing their car has withdrawn his guilty pleas and instead been found mentally incompetent.

District Court Judge Michael Durrant on Monday found Christopher Lachlan Mpumelelo Harvey not guilty of the offending due to mental incompetence, but found the objective elements had been established beyond reasonable doubt.

Harvey had previously pleaded guilty to multiple charges, including three counts of creating likelihood of serious harm, related to a September 2020 crime spree across the Mid North, but Judge Durrant had allowed him to withdraw those pleas at an earlier hearing.

Harvey was arrested after breaking into the Stockport home of Alan Harris and asking for a blanket and bandage for his cut foot.

After his guilty pleas, the matter had been listed for sentencing submissions in November last year.

At that hearing Harvey’s lawyer, Nick Vadasz, told the court his client was in the midst of a psychotic episode after consuming MDMA, commonly known as ecstasy, a few days before the incidents.

Christopher Harvey leaves the District Court on Monday. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Emma Brasier

Mr Vadasz had told the court Harvey had other drugs in his system at the time, including cannabis and anxiety medication.

At that hearing, the court heard Harvey rammed into a car seating a young family – including a young baby – on the Horrocks Hwy, causing their vehicle to roll.

Harvey also crashed into the car of another family – who also had a young baby in their vehicle – before the father went to Harvey’s aid.

Harvey then assaulted the father and bit the mother on the arm while attempting to steal their car. She removed their young baby before Harvey fled in their car.

The mother who was bitten on the arm had described the incident as “the worst night of her entire life” in a victim impact statement read to the court.

She said she had “never felt more scared, or helpless”.

“We were attacked for being good Samaritans after stopping and getting out of the car to see if he was all right because we thought it might be someone having a medical event,” she said.

On Monday, Judge Durrant ordered Harvey, who is on bail in the community, liable to mental health supervision.

He ordered reports, including one from a psychiatrist who has personally examined Harvey, to address his “mental condition, diagnosis, prognosis and suggested treatment”.

The case returns to court in January.