SA court finds Simon Key not guilty of stalking Premier Steven Marshall due to mental illness
A man who threatened Premier Steven Marshall via aggressive phone messages has been found not guilty to stalking due to an ongoing mental illness.
Police & Courts
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A man who stalked and verbally threatened SA Premier Steven Marshall was mentally incompetent at the time and therefore not guilty of a crime, a court has ruled.
On Thursday, the District Court said expert reports showed Simon Key was affected by bipolar disorder when he left an abusive message on Mr Marshall’s voicemail.
In the message, Key demanded a Mr Marshall – whom he called a “mutt” and “puppet” of former premier John Olsen – arrange for his friend to be released from hospital.
He warned that, if his demand was not met, he would set off fire alarms in the state’s hospitals leaving patients on the street “with no one to care for them”.
In her judgment, Judge Liesl Chapman said she was satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that Key had left the messages – but also that his ongoing mental illness played a factor.
“It’s clear he has a longstanding history of Bipolar II Disorder,” she said.
“I find that, because of his mental incompetence at the time, he was unable to know the wrongfulness of his actions.
“He could not reason, with the consciousness and perspective of a reasonable person, that his actions were wrong.”
Key will be subject to serve a limiting term – a period under mental health supervision equal to the prison sentence that would be imposed upon a healthy person.
Key, 42, was charged with one count of stalking a person to influence the performance of a public officer.
He was arrested in May last year following allegations he left an “threatening, aggressive and abusive” voicemail on Mr Marshall’s phone.
Previously, the court heard Key allegedly named other MPs including Stephen Wade, Vickie Chapman and Corey Wingard in that message.
It was alleged in court that Key had a “long history” of such behaviour and had come to the attention of counter-terrorism officers in the past.
Following the arrest, Mr Marshall said he had no intention of increasing security around himself nor his Cabinet, and “felt safe”.
The case’s passage through the state’s courts has been fraught.
Key was initially also charged with one count of threatening to cause harm to another, but that was dropped in August last year – when he fired his lawyer, Trish Johnson, for the first time.
During that hearing, Key said he wanted to plead guilty – but concerns were raised over whether he psychologically understood the wrongfulness of his alleged actions.
Two months later, Key fired Ms Johnson for the second time, entered a guilty plea and was remanded in custody for sentencing.
In April, however, Key appeared in the District Court again represented by Ms Johnson, with questions raised once more about his mental competence.
At that time he was granted bail to live, on home detention, with his brother while being “closely monitored” by mental health services.
On Thursday, Judge Chapman thanked Ms Johnson for her efforts to arrange psychological assessments for Key, ensuring expert reports were ready in time for court.
She remanded Key on continuing bail to face court again in August.
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