Teen ‘zombie’ killer is sent to Carstairs

A TEENAGER who stabbed a man to death, believing he was a zombie, has been sent to the State Hospital in Carstairs.

A forensic psychiatrist, Dr Ian Dewar, told the High Court in Edinburgh that Tianhui Zhan was “unfailingly courteous, polite and pleasant” and that had allowed him to escape the attention of the medical authorities.

But, he added, his mental illness had driven him to kill.

At the end of an earlier trial, judge Michael O’Grady QC told jurors that they should find Zhan, 19, not guilty of murder because expert witnesses had testified that he was insane.

On 13 October, last year, Michael Davis, 21, was in West Campbell Street in Glasgow.

He was talking on his mobile phone as he moved from one cleaning job to another when Zhan stabbed him three times.

The teenager later said he thought Mr Davis was a zombie or a ghost who was going to strike him with a knife or a baseball bat.