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Australian authorities expect New Zealand doctors to assess a killer being deported to Auckland.
Mental health officials have been asked to go to Auckland Airport to meet the man who allegedly strangled a woman in Perth but was never convicted of the killing.
Martin Marks claimed to be insane when he was accused of strangling his estranged girlfriend, Michelle Trench, in 2001 and was found not guilty in 2003 "by reason of insanity".
Now, Western Australia's Attorney-General, Jim McGinty, has decided to release Marks from a mental hospital and fly him to Auckland on the condition he be assessed by doctors here.
However, Australian doctors have already said Marks is too sane to remain in hospital.
"The Department of Health has been liaising with mental health authorities in New Zealand," Mr McGinty said.
"We've provided them with information on Mr Marks and his condition.
"He will be met at the airport by New Zealand mental health authorities and taken to a secure mental health facility for assessment."
But sources said that if Marks had already been decreed sane in Australia, and had committed no crime in New Zealand, the legal grounds for him to be held here against his will were limited.
The victim's family have pleaded for Marks to be kept in custody. Ms Trench's mother, Margaret Hunter, said she was disgusted over the release because there appeared to be no checks on whether Marks was committed in Auckland or simply assessed and given his freedom.
Western Australia's "shadow" attorney-general, Sue Walker, said she feared Marks was being released to freedom.
"Details of Ms Trench's killing were horrific," Ms Walker said. "What kind of system allows a man who choked his partner to death and stomped on her repeatedly to serve only four years?"
But Mr McGinty said psychiatric reports said Marks had shown no signs of mental illness in the past three years.
- NZPA
