Malaysia teen in Bandar Utama school killing viewed classmates as ‘NPCs’, court hears

SELANGOR, MALAYSIA: A Malaysian teenager who was acquitted of killing a schoolmate had come to view people around him as “NPCs” — non-player characters in video games — according to psychiatric evidence cited in the Shah Alam High Court’s written judgment.

The term was used by the teenager to describe classmates, teachers, his parents and society, reflecting what the court heard was a severely distorted perception of other people.

The findings were contained in a psychiatric report by Dr Ian Lloyd Anthony, director and senior consultant forensic psychiatrist at Hospital Bahagia Ulu Kinta, and cited by Judge Adlin Abdul Majid in her full grounds of judgment.

From isolation to psychosis

According to the report by Malay Mail, the teenager’s behaviour began changing when he was around nine years old, becoming increasingly withdrawn and isolated.

He developed persistent beliefs that other students were laughing at or talking about his appearance and later became convinced that people were monitoring him through hidden cameras at home and at school.

The psychiatric evidence described these as paranoid delusions that progressively intensified over several years without treatment.

He also developed an interest in school shooters and serial killers before becoming infatuated with the 16-year-old schoolgirl he later killed.

Fixation on the schoolgirl

The court heard that the fixation developed around August 2024, despite the teenager having never spoken to or otherwise contacted the girl.

About seven months before the killing, he began experiencing an auditory hallucination in which he believed the voice of Columbine shooter Dylan Klebold was instructing him in Mandarin to kill her.

He also began identifying with Kira, the fictional vigilante from the Japanese manga and anime series Death Note, who believes he has the authority to judge and kill others.

A journal on his mobile phone, written in Mandarin, documented the progression of his thoughts.

The entries included his belief that people around him were “NPCs”, identification with Kira and mass killers, suicidal thoughts and an increasingly intense fixation on the girl.

The journal also recorded a shift from what he described as love for the girl to an intention to take her with him in death, according to the judgment.

Why the court found him not criminally responsible

Judge Adlin found that the psychiatric evidence showed the teenager was experiencing active psychosis at the time of the killing.

She said his delusions went beyond providing a motive for the attack and affected his ability to understand what he was actually doing.

One factor the court considered particularly significant was his belief that the victim would be reincarnated.

Adlin found that he therefore did not understand that he was taking the life of a real person, rather than carrying out an act within his distorted perception of reality.

The teenager was subsequently acquitted after the court found that he was of unsound mind at the time of the incident.

Years without treatment

Dr Ian diagnosed the teenager with very early-onset schizophrenia, with the court hearing that he had experienced psychiatric symptoms for about five years without treatment.

The psychiatrist testified that his hallucinations stopped and his delusions began to recede after he was given antipsychotic medication.

The teenager remains in psychiatric care at Hospital Bahagia Ulu Kinta under the court’s order.

In her judgment, Adlin said the case showed the consequences of severe mental illness going unrecognised in a child for years.

She noted that symptoms including withdrawal, delusional thinking, persistent fears of being watched and hallucinations had been present long before the killing.