Accused murderer Matthew Flame was ‘Archangel who spoke to dead’
Accused murderer Matthew Flame thought he could speak to the dead, including rocker Angry Anderson’s son.
Accused murderer Matthew Flame thought he was the Archangel Raphael who could speak to the dead, including Angry Anderson’s son, after meeting a spiritualist and taking drugs in prison.
Liam Anderson, the son of rocker Angry Anderson, lead singer of the band Rose Tattoo, died between 6am and 7am on November 4, 2018 after being assaulted and stomped on by his friend Mr Flame.
Mr Flame, who has pleaded not guilty to murder on the grounds of mental illness, took both methamphetamine and the opioid buprenorphine while in jail, his trial has heard.
In the South Coast Correctional Centre at Nowra, Mr Flame “met a spiritualist who gave him a reading which explained everything that happened”.
The spiritualist, named Kemp, wrote the reading in a letter which said “much love Matthew, please do not fear this, no-one judges you for what you have done. Liam does not judge you he often appears around you”.
Forensic psychiatrist Dr Stephen Allnutt told the court that Mr Flame’s mother felt after her son met Kemp he “was again more different”.
Mr Flame had “believed … the dead could talk to him and he was the Archangel Raphael and requested an exorcism”.
Dr Allnutt, who examined Mr Flame’s case while he was in prison, said that after drinking and taking drugs on the night of November 3 and 4 in 2018, the accused had felt “his body was changing”.
Dr Allnutt told the court that between 7pm and 5am, Mr Flame had consumed ten to 15 alcoholic drinks of bourbon and beer, 1.5g of cannabis and possibly up to 13 MDMA tablets.
Mr Flame, 22, an apprentice plumber before his arrest had been friends with his alleged victim for five years before Mr Anderson’s death.
Mr Flame’s counsel has argued that he was not guilty by way of defective reasoning due to psychosis as a result of a mental illness.
Crown prosecutor Gareth Christofi has argued that at the time of the death Matthew Flame was suffering from a drug-induced psychosis as a result of voluntarily taking drugs.
Defence witness Dr Allnutt said under questioning by Mr Flame’s counsel, John Stratton, SC,
that the accused had “symptoms consistent with a treatment-resistant paranoid schizophrenia with auditory hallucinations”.
Dr Allnutt agreed that Mr Flame had believed on the night that “some type of evil spirit” was controlling him.
“I thought it was an evil spirit and I was in hell, I thought Liam was a demon and was following me,” the then 20-year-old said.
“Then something overpowered me, some sort of higher power. I could feel this urge.
“Something said I had to do it, I had to kill with my knees, legs, hands I thought he was going to roll over and attack me.”
Dr Allnutt said that prodromal signs, or early symptoms of Mr Flame’s schizophrenia, could have included OCD Behaviour his mother had reported him displaying aged 14 or 15.
Another was a ”weird” experience at work four months before the killing when Mr Flame had also combined taking alcohol, cannabis and multiple MDMA tablets the night before.
Mr Flame had “gone home from work feeling unwell. Her thought the men at work were devils and demons … he was starting to spin out,” the court heard.
Dr Allnutt said Mr Flame’s “psychosis was unmasked for the first time” but his schizophrenic “condition would have emerged independent of substances at some time”.
“I do not believe he had capacity to understand reason about the wrongfulness of his actions. in a manner that a person of rational mind might,” Dr Allnutt said.
Under cross-examination by Mr Christofi, Dr Allnutt agreed the OCD or the episode at work were not “definitively” conclusive of schizophrenia symptoms.
Asked by Mr Christofi if the work episode was merely a manifestation of the night before’s intoxication or withdrawal therefrom, Dr Allnutt said, “Yes, I stated that.”
When Mr Christofi asked whether in the lead-up to the assault Mr Flame had been well-adjusted, well motivated and enjoying his life, Mr Allnutt said, “Correct.”
He gave the same reply when asked if Mr Flame had been “a young man with a healthy mind” and if the psychosis on the night was short-lived.
The trial, which is in its third week, before Justice Richard Button, continues.