Ex-Melbourne Grammar student ‘mentally unwell’ during homeless killing

A former Melbourne Grammar student who killed a homeless man has been found not guilty of murder.

There was no question that Easton Woodhead killed homeless man Wayne 'Mouse' Perry in January last year.

Woodhead’s state of mind when he brutally stabbed Mr Perry to death was the key issue.

Woodhead's father and and Perry's sister both wiped away tears as the jury agreed he was mentally unwell when he stabbed to death the man affectionately known as 'Mouse'.

A Supreme Court jury on Monday afternoon found the then 19-year-old not guilty on the grounds of mental impairment.

Perry died where he lived - under a train overpass at Enterprise Park, on the banks of the Yarra River.

Woodhead, who was living in an apartment on Flinders Street and binging on drugs, believed Perry had stolen his motorbike, and confronted him in the early hours of January 5, 2014.

He stabbed the 42-year-old repeatedly in the face, hand and back.

The trial heard Woodhead's life had spiralled from a private schoolboy with a privileged upbringing to a drug-addicted young man, living alone in an apartment that was paid for by his mother and smoking cannabis every day.

While the prosecution argued he showed enough awareness of his actions to dispose of the knife used to kill Perry, Woodhead's defence said he was delusional, believing he was God, the son of a werewolf, and could achieve immortality by injecting ink into his veins.

A doctor told the murder trial that Woodhead was probably suffering paranoid schizophrenia when he stabbed Perry to death. And the jury agreed.

While Woodhead was found not guilty, he was not set free after the verdict.

Instead he will remain in prison until November 16, when his future will be decided.

News break – November 2`