A dangerous psychiatric patient will stay in secure custody until his future can be decided again by a mental health tribunal.
The man was due to be released this year after the Northern Mental Health Tribunal decided he did not fit the legal definition of a mentally disordered person.
But urgent legal action by the Director of Mental Health, Dr Janice Wilson, stopped the man from being released until the tribunal's decision could be challenged in the High Court.
In the High Court at Auckland on Wednesday, Justice Rod Hansen ordered the tribunal to reconsider the man's future, saying it was wrong in its interpretation.
Dr Wilson should have been heard by the tribunal before it made its decision to release the man from the Mason Clinic in Auckland.
Crown counsel Grant Liddell said the man remained subject to a compulsory treatment order and his case would be reheard by the tribunal as a result of the decision.
"The court found that the director was entitled to have been heard by the tribunal, and wasn't and should have been. It also found that the tribunal's interpretation of the criteria for determining when somebody is fit to be released from compulsory status was wrong."
Mr Liddell said a date for the new hearing had not been set.
The man's name and details have been suppressed.
At the earlier hearing, Judge Hansen said the man had a history of psychiatric illnesses and anti-social behaviour dating back to childhood.
He had committed a number of assaults on women, including rape and threatening to kill.
"It's sufficient to say that he has been incarcerated either in prison or mental institutions for much of his adult life."
Justice Hansen had granted an interim order in June to stop the man being released.
- NZPA
Judge orders review of patient's release
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