Bourke St case: Jury unable to determine if James Gargasoulas mentally fit to stand trial

The jury was unable to determine whether accused Bourke Street killer James Gargasoulas is mentally fit to stand trial.

James Gargasoulas (centre) is transferred from a prison van at the Supreme Court in Melbourne, Tuesday, June 19, 2018. (AAP Image/Julian Smith) NO ARCHIVING

A Melbourne jury has been discharged after being unable to determine whether accused Bourke Street killer James Gargasoulas is mentally fit to stand trial.

Mr Gargasoulas, 28, is charged with six counts of murder and 28 counts of attempted murder relating to the January 2017 incident in Melbourne’s CBD.

A special hearing in the Victorian Supreme Court last week heard Mr Gargasoulas suffers from paranoid schizophrenia and believes he is the messiah and will save the world from “cataclysmic destruction”.

The jury of eight men and four women were sent out on Monday afternoon for deliberations and returned this morning after informing Justice Lex Lasry they were unable to reach a unanimous decision.

Justice Lasry told the jury today they should be proud of their efforts.

“You have been deliberating since Monday and that’s a heroic effort in my opinion,” he said.

He said jurors were right not to compromise their strong views.

“This is a difficult case, this is a significant case... this is a tragic case,” he said.

The court had earlier heard that Mr Gargasoulas may respond to treatment that was available at Thomas Embling hospital but not in prison.

Barrister Theo Alexander, for Mr Gargasoulas, said today it “logically, rationally, economically” made sense for his client to be transferred to the hospital.

Justice Lasry said it was clear Mr Gargasoulas needed the next level of treatment.

He said he had been pressing for the case to proceed and it was possible a second jury would also be unable to reach a verdict.

“Something has to be done, if that means moving your client to Thomas Embling ... of course I would support that,” he said.

Justice Lasry ordered a certificate be prepared for removing Mr Gargasoulas to the custody of the psychiatric hospital.

Today marked Justice Lasry’s final day on the bench and the case will return to court next month before Justice Mark Weinberg.

During the fitness hearing, Dr Alexander had said his client was unable to enter a plea and unable to instruct his lawyers.

“How can he give cogent instructions if his underlying belief is that he’s the messiah here to save us from a comet and if it all goes well he can just die and come back to life again?” Dr Alexander said in his closing argument on Monday.

Prosecutor Andrew Tinney SC asked the jury to consider what was irrational about not wanting to plead guilty to six charges of murder and instead pleading not guilty because of mental impairment.

“Why would you plead guilty if you thought you might get off? Nothing remotely irrational or surprising about that,” Mr Tinney said.

“The accused man is a messiah who has the presence of mind to know that if it is his lot in life to be saving the world, he wants to be doing that from the relative comfort of Thomas Embling Hospital rather than from the 23-hour lockdown of a prison.”

Mr Tinney told the court it was obviously the case that Mr Gargasoulas was a “disturbed person beset by bizarre beliefs about himself” but said it didn’t mean Mr Gargasoulas couldn’t think, understand or make decisions.

“That does not mean that he cannot meet the very basic standards necessary to be able to stand trial for the crimes he has allegedly committed,” he said.