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“Something super, powerful, gave me a punch right in the heart. An electric shock of clarity. I came back to earth that second he looked at me. We made eye contact — my knife was still in him.”

Robinson told the judge that there was much that could be said about the disturbing description of the taking of the life of Gordic.

“It must once again be noted that this is at complete odds with his trial testimony,” she said, noting that during the trial the accused had claimed that he remembered nothing about the key events. “However, he would now have this court believe that he essentially came to at the moment he stabbed Luka Gordic in the heart. (The accused) describes the moment of the murder almost like a religious experience, an encounter with God.”

Photo by Nick Procaylo / PNG

Members of the victim’s family reacted visibly, several of them leaving the courtroom as the accused’s quotes from the psychiatrist’s report were being read out by Robinson.

Earlier, the prosecutor argued that the circumstances of the case rebutted the presumption the accused is entitled to that as a youth he had a diminished capacity for moral judgments. She noted that at the time of the murder the accused was only a few weeks away from turning 18, the age at which the accused would be sentenced as an adult and face a stiffer sentence.

The factors that need to be considered in raising a youth to be sentenced as an adult include the age and maturity of the accused, the degree of participation in the crime, the harm done and any prior findings of guilt, said Robinson.