Two days before he killed him in a Hakea Prison cell with his bare hands,Evan James Martin told a nurse his mental health was deteriorating,a court was told.
Medical notes read in court show Martin repeatedly asked for mental health support and warned he might hurt others in the weeks leading up to the incident.
Martin murdered a fellow inmate.Greg Henderson
Martin was charged with murder after he walked into Bropho’s cell on March 9 2023,days after the intellectually impaired man had.
At a previous appearance,the court was told how Martin closed the door to Bropho’s cell and spoke to him about his crime.
“A few things were said – the only thing I remember is this piece of shit blaming this poor little girl for his offending,” Martin wrote in a letter that was read out in court.
Martin went on to explain how he then put Bropho in a “choke hold” and wrapped his legs around “to hold him still.”
“I squeezed him so the blood would stop going to his paedophile brain,” he wrote.
“When I was extremely confident he was dead,I got up and put a towel over the door of his cell so people thought he was on the toilet.”
The extent of Martin’s psychotic and schizophrenic illnesses were laid bare as Judge Bruno Fiannaca weighed up how to sentence the 42-year-old.
At the time Martin was already part way through serving an 11-year sentence for the attempted murder of another paedophile inmate in 2020.
Consultant forensic psychiatrist Dr Victoria Pascu gave evidence on two reports she filed to the court about the state of Martin’s mental health in the lead up the killing of Bropho.
Pascu visited Martin twice;once prior to the murder of Bropho and once after. She said he suffered from anti-social personality disorder with some psychopathic traits,a chronic psychotic illness,chronic paranoid schizophrenia and emotionally unstable personality disorder.
The court heard Martin – who was first diagnosed in 2001 and prescribed psychotic medication that he rarely took – spoke repeatedly about killing people and drinking their blood,particularly his parents.
He also had a well-documented hatred for child sex offenders as he had been a victim of sexual abuse as a child himself.
When he found out Bropho would be joining Unit 10 at Hakea Prison,he told a fellow inmate,“I will kill him.”
“I’m not ashamed of my actions,I feel proud,I feel no shame for killing Bropho who had no shame for being a child sex offender,” Martin said previously in documents that were read out to the court.
But Pascu said it was his untreated mental illnesses that contributed to Martin’s decision to carry out the killing.
“He was not coping with isolation and punishment,” she said.
“He was having intrusive and negative thoughts,there is evidence of him asking to be seen by mental health[staff] about the way he was feeling.”
Pascu said if Martin’s mental health had been treated properly,his “judgement” and “insight” would have improved.
She said he had made “various indications” that he would harm himself and others but added that he told her he would often hide the severity of his symptoms because it could lead to being placed into solitary confinement.
“He talked about being concerned about what he was experiencing because if he did this he would be put in the punishment cell,so this would deter him from expressing all of the symptoms he was experiencing.
“We know the impact of isolation from people on mental illness. It has a significant and detrimental impact on someone who is psychotic.”
Asked why she did not escalate concerns about Martin’s mental health after a visit to him in October 2022,Pascu said the psychiatrist who was treating him had resigned.
She added that treatment for mental health illnesses in prisons “cannot be forced”.
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