‘Devil’ made man carry out attack

A MAN suffering from religious delusions caused “terrible” injuries in an assault on a fellow patient in a psychiatric hospital, a court heard yesterday.

Abdul Mumin, 24, kept repeating the Islamic expression Allahu Akbar – God is the greatest – after he attacked Leo Zheng, 20, in the Royal Edinburgh Hospital on 1 April.

Psychiatrists told the High Court in Edinburgh that Mumin was schizophrenic and had been insane and not responsible for his actions at the time of the offence. Mumin had said the devil made him do “bad things”.

A jury decided Mumin had attempted to murder Mr Zheng, but that he should be acquitted by reason of insanity. The judge, Lord Woolman, ordered Mumin’s return to the State Hospital in Carstairs, where he has been held since the incident.

The court heard that Mr Zheng, who had been diagnosed with schizophrenia, was in a television room of the hospital’s Meadows Ward, when staff heard cries of: “Nurse, nurse.” They saw him lying on the floor and Mumin was kicking and stamping on his head.

Mr Zheng sustained a severe brain injury and, after rehabilitation, has recovered some speech and can sit unaided.