Warning: This article contains graphic imagery
In the depths of persecutory delusions brought on by schizophrenia, Fanrong Meng burst into a North Shore restaurant and began attacking diners with an axe shortly after immigrating to New Zealand. He was acquitted on the grounds of insanity and now wishes to return to China. Why can’t he leave? George Block reports.
When Fanrong Meng announced he was planning to immigrate to New Zealand from China, people he knew tried to put him off the idea.
He had been diagnosed with schizophrenia as a teen. There were fears for how he would cope with no support in the country.
But the lure of a higher salary spurred Meng to forge ahead with his plans and he gained a three-year work visa.
He stopped taking his antipsychotic medication in a bid to save money before flying out of China.
Details of his background emerged at a hearing in the Auckland District Court this month to decide Meng’s fate after a judge found he was not criminally liable by reason of insanity for attacking and injuring six people last year.
He launched into the attack amid hallucinations and delusions someone was trying to kill him, brought on by his condition.
Immigration authorities have now confirmed to the Herald he cannot be deported because of his classification by a judge as a special patient who must be detained at a secure psychiatric facility.
However, Immigration has confirmed it is in talks with the Mason Clinic about his future prospects for deportation, although officials could not give a timeframe.
Meng lost his job a couple of months after arriving in the country, two weeks before the attack, because his employer did not have enough work available.
On June 19 he went to a block of Asian restaurants in Albany’s Corinthian Dr. He believed the diners at the restaurants were the same people who were coming after him in his hallucinations.
He took a metal pole and a log-splitting axe from his car and hid them inside his jacket.
Meng went into Maya Hotpot and approached three people who were eating together, took the axe from his jacket and swung at them, repeatedly striking the diners with its blunt end.
He chased them out of the restaurant before turning and entering another premises, Yue’s Dumpling Kingdom, where he attacked a man without warning.
The man was left unconscious and seriously injured by the blow, before Meng injured a fifth victim who was trying to defend himself.
After this, he went to the third restaurant, Zhangliang Malatang.
He repeatedly swung at his sixth and final victim, who managed to grab the end of the axe despite the onslaught, keeping his grip until police arrived and arrested Meng.
Witnesses described Meng as appearing calm as he swung the axe. Police arrived to find blood mixed with food on the floors of the restaurants.
Meng pleaded not guilty to charges of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and assault.
At a hearing in November, Judge Stephen Bonnar, KC, found that while Meng had committed the axe rampage, he was not criminally liable for his actions. Psychiatric reports showed he was so unwell at the time he was unable to know what he was doing was wrong.
About six months later, Meng appeared via audio-visual link from secure psychiatric facility the Mason Clinic before Judge Pippa Sinclair for a hearing in the Auckland District Court.
At the hearing on April 18, the 25-year-old wore a T-shirt and spectacles and was accompanied by an immigration officer. He appeared to be in a better state than at his earlier hearings.
His lawyer, Michael Kan, told the court Meng had been responding well to treatment and his condition was much improved.
Crown prosecutor Taniela-Afu Veikune argued Meng should be detained as a special patient at a psychiatric hospital under Section 24 (2)(a) of the Criminal Procedure (Mentally Impaired Persons) Act, saying Meng posed a significant and ongoing risk to the community.
Kan said the charges should be disposed of via a different avenue in the act, Section 25(1)(a).
This route would have enabled him to be treated as a mental health patient before his deportation, but it would stop short of requiring him to be detained at a special facility.
Meng wanted to return to China to receive mental health treatment with the support of his parents. It appeared a Section 25 order would have enabled him to be returned home.
The court heard a clinical team in New Zealand had been in touch with the Chinese embassy and a mental hospital in China, where Meng had been accepted.
However, Judge Sinclair agreed with the Crown that a stronger approach was required, and said community protection was the most important factor in her decision.
“Given the nature of the incident, public safety must be the paramount consideration,” the judge said.
Judge Sinclair ordered Meng detained as a special patient in a secure facility under Section 24.
He can be detained for half the length of the maximum sentence of the most serious charge, wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, which is 14 years, meaning he can be held in a secure psychiatric facility for seven years.
His classification as a special patient means he cannot currently be deported, said Stephanie Greathead, national manager of immigration compliance at the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, which encompasses Immigration NZ.
“The case of Fanrong Meng has been deeply traumatic for everyone involved. We empathise with those who have been adversely affected,” Greathead said in a statement.
“Fanrong Meng is being detained in New Zealand as a ‘special patient’, and as such he cannot currently be deported.
“However, we are working with the medical team at the Mason Clinic to clarify what this may mean in terms of future prospects for his deportation, and at this stage we do not know what that timeframe may be.”
Anyone applying for a visa is required to make a declaration about their health status, while most people intending to stay for longer than a year are required to undertake an examination and make more detailed health and medical declarations, Greathead said.
Applicants are required to be upfront with their declarations and to provide medical records to Immigration NZ (INZ), she said.
“INZ is not currently considering any changes to the way in which mental health screening is undertaken and there are no policy reviews scheduled into the acceptable standard of health.”
George Block is an Auckland-based reporter with a focus on police, the courts, prisons and defence. He joined the Herald in 2022 and has previously worked at Stuff in Auckland and the Otago Daily Times in Dunedin.
Fire crews were called to the scene around 7.30pm.