Teen accused in Bandar Utama school killing diagnosed with early-onset schizophrenia and viewed others as ‘non-player characters’

PETALING JAYA (Sept 23): The 15-year-old boy who killed his female schoolmate at a secondary school in Bandar Utama, Petaling Jaya, last year had come to view the victim and those around him as “NPCs”, the Shah Alam High Court was told.

In gaming terminology, an NPC — or non‑player character — refers to background characters controlled by the game rather than by a human player, and the term is sometimes used online to imply that a person lacks agency or individuality.

In her full grounds of judgment, Judge Adlin Abdul Majid said this was disclosed in a psychiatric report prepared by Dr Ian Lloyd Anthony, the director and senior consultant forensic psychiatrist at Hospital Bahagia Ulu Kinta.

In disclosing his findings, Dr Ian highlighted the existence of a “Death Note” journal on the accused’s mobile phone, in which he repeatedly referred to the deceased while chronicling the disturbing and psychotic thoughts in his mind.

Death Note is a Japanese anime and manga series centred on a student who discovers a supernatural notebook that allows him to kill anyone by writing their name, and the character Kira — whom the accused identified with — is portrayed as a vigilante who believes he has the authority to judge and eliminate others.

The journal, written in Mandarin, contained accounts of his symptoms six months before the murder.

“The entries show persecutory beliefs that classmates were conspiring against him and deserved to die, a wish for mass casualties, and a conviction that others would lie to the police to make him appear at fault.

“They show his dehumanisation of those around him, most starkly in his adoption of the term NPC to describe his schoolmates as subhuman, valueless game objects.

“They show a grandiose delusion of having become Kira, a godlike figure entitled to judge and eliminate others, and open identification with Eric Harris, Dylan Klebold and other mass killers as role models and (in his own words) as gods,” she said in her grounds.

Adlin said the entries further showed the evolution of his fixation on the deceased, from professed love to an intention to take her with him in death, alongside pervasive suicidal thoughts, profound loneliness and a belief that his self-worth was entirely tied to his physical appearance.

Psychiatric report findings

The psychiatric report also noted a strong family history of mental illness, including an institutionalised aunt, a mentally disordered paternal grand-uncle and two affected sons, as well as a family member treated for depression.

Dr Ian further said that the child’s situation worsened over the years as he was exposed to the internet, video games and anime.

The report said that from around 2020, when the child was nine and during the Covid-19 movement control period, his family and later teachers observed a gradual change in his behaviour, with him becoming withdrawn, isolating himself in his room and refusing to communicate with his family.

“He also developed a persistent belief that he was physically unattractive and that other students were laughing at and talking about him.

“He began wearing a face mask at all times, even after public health requirements had ended, refusing to remove it to eat or drink at school.”

Outside home, he became highly anxious and believed people were observing him, which the report described as paranoid delusions.

The psychiatric report identified a further evolution of psychotic symptoms in 2023, when he became suspicious that CCTV cameras had been secretly installed in his home and believed he was being watched by ‘the eye’ of a technician who had repaired the system.

The report described this as a paranoid delusion, reinforced by his perception of a red light in his room, which was recorded as a visual hallucination.

“He later became convinced that his parents had covertly installed cameras in his room and bathroom.

“By early 2025, the belief had extended to his school, where he believed the security guard and certain teachers were secretly monitoring him via CCTV, including while he was in the school washroom,” the report added.

Dr Ian also said the accused began developing an interest in school shooters and serial killers, while from around August 2024, he developed an infatuation with the deceased.

Seven months before the murder, Dr Ian noted that the accused began experiencing auditory hallucinations in the form of a voice he attributed to Dylan Klebold, speaking to him in Mandarin and instructing him to kill the deceased.

Around the same period, the accused also began identifying with Light Yagami, or Kira, the god-like vigilante from Death Note.

“Taken as a whole, I accept that this chronology reflects a serious and longstanding psychotic illness that developed and worsened progressively over several years.

“By the time of the incident, the child was in the grip of an active psychosis, marked by delusions directed at the deceased and a commanding hallucinated voice instructing him to kill her,” Adlin said.

She said Dr Ian’s testimony rejected the suggestion that the accused had feigned his symptoms, with the journal entries confirming that the psychotic beliefs described in the psychiatric report were not constructed for the trial but were genuinely present in the boy’s mind in the period leading up to the incident.

Adlin said that three weeks after being prescribed antipsychotic medication, Dr Ian testified that the accused’s hallucinations had ceased and his delusions had begun to dissolve, while he also began engaging warmly with his family in a manner not seen for years.

In fact, the illness’s severity was well documented, with Dr Ian stating that the accused had experienced a wide range of psychiatric symptoms for about five years without receiving medical treatment by the time the offence occurred, including severe and debilitating psychotic symptoms in the form of hallucinations and delusions.

“Based on the evidence set out in the psychiatric report, DW2 (Dr Ian) diagnosed the child with schizophrenia, of very early onset (before the age of 13) with psychopathic and sadistic traits.

During cross-examination, Adlin said DW2 drew an important distinction between hallucinations and delusions, explaining that hallucinations are intermittent and come and go, whereas delusions are fixed and continuously present.

“On this basis, the delusional system was not something that came upon the child occasionally. It was present throughout, including during the incident,” she said.

Adlin also noted that DW2 explained the clinical significance of the accused having remained untreated for five years, noting that this period, known as the duration of untreated psychosis (DUP), is measured from the onset of symptoms to the start of medication.

“The Malaysian mean DUP is 28.7 months, compared with approximately 60 months in the child’s case.

“DW2 then elaborated that untreated psychosis does not remain static — it becomes more elaborate over time, and the longer it goes unchallenged, the more internally logical it becomes to the person experiencing it, and the more resistant to correction.

“As such, by the time of the incident, the child’s reality testing was impaired to the point that the world he perceived was not the world the rest of us live in,” she said.

15-year-old boy Adlin Abdul Majid Bandar Utama female schoolmate killed secondary school