He had been deemed not guilty by reason of insanity in June for charges of murder and attempted murder, and he asked through his lawyer this week that he be released immediately into the community.<\/p>\n
\u201cI mean no disrespect to you, but that request is consistent with the delusional beliefs that psychiatrists have described,\u201d Justice Simon Mount told him as he instead ordered Falesefulu to be held indefinitely as a \u201cspecial patient\u201d at the psychiatric facility.<\/p>\n
Rob Fitzpatrick was killed at Mt Eden Corrections Facility last year after he was double-bunked with a psychotic inmate who had attempted to murder a stranger just weeks earlier.<\/p>\n
\u201cYour conduct involved violence of the gravest kind,\u201d he added, describing the initial attempted murder attack as \u201cextreme and gratuitous\u201d. <\/p>\n
And they weren\u2019t isolated incidents, the judge said, describing a background of repeated violence and non-compliance with treatment for his schizophrenia. <\/p>\n
\u201cYou remain profoundly lacking in insight,\u201d he said. \u201cYou continue to regard your behaviour as justified.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018Prolonged\u2019 attacks<\/p>\n
Falesefulu was first taken into custody in the early morning hours of May 29 last year, after council workers found his first victim at a bus stop<\/a> in M\u0101ngere. <\/p>\n The two first met and spoke briefly at the bus stop around 1.23am. For unknown reasons, they squared off into a physical confrontation 30 minutes later.<\/p>\n Falesefulu, who is large-statured, overpowered the other man after a short scuffle and forced him to the ground. He then stood over the other man and punched him in the head more than 30 times as he grabbed the collar of his sweatshirt. The victim at first tried to block the blows but was \u201cquickly rendered unconscious\u201d, court documents state. <\/p>\n \u201cAfter that initial attack, and with [the victim] lying unconscious on the ground, Mr Falesefulu stood up and forcefully dropped his full weight onto [the other man\u2019s] chest, landing on him in a seated position,\u201d according to the agreed summary of facts.<\/p>\n \u201cFor the next four minutes, Mr Falesefulu, while seated on [the victim\u2019s] torso, punched him over 100 times to the head with both fists. As he punched him, [the victim\u2019s] blood spilt from his head and covered the sidewalk around him. At times during the assault, Mr Falesefulu tired and temporarily suspended his attack before regaining his breath and recommencing his assault on the unconscious [victim].\u201d<\/p>\n He then walked away from the bus stop, leaving the victim still out cold and struggling to breathe. He was found 30 minutes later and rushed to the hospital in critical condition. <\/p>\n When arrested a short time later, Falesefulu claimed self-defence. <\/p>\n He would also claim self-defence almost exactly a month later, after killing his Mt Eden bunkmate<\/a>. <\/p>\n The two had been assigned to the same cell on June 14. One day earlier, Falesefulu asked his lawyer to write a note requesting his own cell for safety reasons. The note was found in his cell on the day of the homicide, but it isn\u2019t known if he had shown it to anyone, the summary of facts states. <\/p>\n Fellow inmates later described hearing banging noises from inside the cell for about 15 minutes, starting at 3.15pm that day. <\/p>\n The attack was described by officials as \u201csustained and prolonged\u201d and resulted in Fitzpatrick suffering \u201ccatastrophic head wounds, compression injuries to his neck and blunt force injuries to his torso\u201d. <\/p>\n \u201cMr Fitzpatrick\u2019s blood was located throughout the cell, with a large pool on the ground around his head,\u201d court documents state. <\/p>\n Falesefulu\u2019s knuckles on both of his hands were bloody \u2013 an indication of how hard he had pummelled the other man.<\/p>\n \u2018He deserved protection\u2019<\/p>\n In a heartrending victim impact statement, Fitzpatrick\u2019s mother told the court through tears that she is haunted by the image of her son\u2019s blood seeping out from the cell door.<\/p>\n \u201cThese words and the image are forever seared in my memory,\u201d Dorothy Fitzpatrick said. \u201cI scream every time I remember.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s usually a silent scream, but sometimes in the wee hours of the morning, if I\u2019m alone in the house, the scream is as loud as I can make it. The horror of that will never go away. My son was so badly brutalised by you that it was a closed casket at his funeral.\u201d<\/p>\n She said she clings to hope, \u201cagainst all odds\u201d, that her son was asleep when Falesefulu snapped and that he didn\u2019t suffer prolonged terror at the other man\u2019s hands.<\/p>\n Family described the victim as a university graduate who loved the band Guns N\u2019 Roses, played guitar, played backyard sports and shared sweets with his sister\u2019s children. The Whang\u0101rei resident left behind a son.<\/p>\n \u201cI love his cheeky smile and his quick comebacks,\u201d sister Julia Fitzpatrick recalled. \u201cRob had an unflappable positivity about life and would always be striving for more.<\/p>\n \u201cEven when his own mental health declined, his determination kept him going.\u201d<\/p>\n Rob Fitzpatrick was arrested twice in 2024 after violating a restraining order for a woman he had been sending unwanted messages for a decade. He spent some of the time in custody at a psychiatric facility, but he was also sent to Mt Eden for four months in late 2024 and early 2025.<\/p>\n Eventually, he was released on electronically monitored bail and showed encouraging signs of improvement as he received help under the Mental Health Act, his family said.<\/p>\n But he was arrested a final time in May last year after contacting one of the complainant\u2019s friends with a message that read: \u201cHi [name redacted], coffee?\u201d<\/p>\n The Fitzpatrick family has previously told the Herald<\/a> they blame the death in part on failures by government agencies, including poor information-sharing between health services and Corrections.<\/p>\n \u201cYou have to question the common sense of people who are in the offices at Mt Eden prison,\u201d brother Ross Fitzpatrick said of the decision to bunk a violent offender with his brother. \u201cWe just want to know why those clowns … signed off on this decision.\u201d<\/p>\nRob Fitzpatrick was killed on June 27 last year while at Auckland’s Mt Eden Corrections Facility.<\/p>\n
Dorothy Fitzpatrick and her late husband, Keith, previously told the Herald they were let down by the justice system. Their son’s death at Mr Eden Prison contributed to her husband’s decline in health and his death, Dorothy Fitzpatrick told a judge this week. Photo \/ Annaleise Shortland<\/p>\n
Rob Fitzpatrick was killed on June 27 last year while at Auckland’s Mt Eden Corrections Facility.<\/p>\n