Norway attacker sentenced to psychiatric care

A Norwegian court has sentenced a Danish man to obligatory mental health care after he was found guilty of murdering five people in a knife and bow-and-arrow attack in October last year.

The 38-year-old man was also found guilty of 11 counts of attempted murder for shooting at people with arrows in the small town of Kongsberg, some 80 kilometers (50 miles) west of the capital, Oslo.

A group of forensic psychiatric experts said the attacker had been mentally ill at the time of the attack and suffered from chronic paranoid schizophrenia.

The court said that the defendant, who pleaded guilty to the charges, had claimed during the trial "that he had decided to kill people in order to achieve rebirth. He said he thought he was going to go blind. The accused therefore believed that it was urgent to kill.''

All sides agree on lack of criminal responsibility

The assailant had been taken to a medical institution shortly after his arrest.

Both the prosecution and defense agreed he could not be held criminally responsible for his actions.

The judges on Thursday said "the defendant clearly had comprehension and functional disorders because of his condition" during the attack.

"The court therefore finds that the defendant cannot be held criminally responsible for any of the charges," they said in their verdict.

The Danish man, who had been living in Norway, was carrying some 60 arrows and four knives when he went on his spree. His victims were four women and one man between the ages of 52 and 78.

ab/kb (AFP, AP)