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Paris mourns her slain dad
Wednesday 7 May, 2008 5:01pm
THE 10-year-old daughter of slain Crows Nest restaurateur Mario Acquaro has appealed to the community to be aware of people with a mental illness.
Paris Acquaro was speaking after her father's killer, Gordon Francis Chang Szeto, 33, was found not guilty of murdering Mr Acquaro, 41.
Mr Szeto was diagnosed with acute paranoid schizophrenia two days after the stabbing.
The former kitchen hand, who had worked at Mr Acquaro's Bravo Trattoria for a year before killing him, will be released when he no longer poses a danger to the community or himself.
Outside the Supreme Court on April 23, Paris said the killing was "out of the blue".
"I miss him every day and Mum gave me two choices (about attending the court case)," she said.
"I wanted to be here to see for myself and I believe my Dad is now in a better place.
"I remember helping Dad at the restaurant and standing at the cash register and saying hello to customers.
"I want to give a big warning that people you know might have a mental illness and to be aware."
In handing down his judgement, Justice Roderick Howie said all the evidence clearly pointed to only one verdict.
He said the killing was the result of Szeto's "severe delusional state of mind" which had led him to believe Mr Acquaro was involved in a conspiracy to sexually assault his former girlfriend.
Szeto, who was described as "acutely psychotic", stabbed Mr Acquaro 12 times in the neck, shoulder and arm after ambushing him in the restaurant's kitchen on January 8 last year.
The judge ordered Szeto to be detained as a forensic patient at Long Bay jail's psychiatric hospital until his release.
"The accused entered via the back door armed with a knife and confronted Mario, who was taking a telephone call, in broad daylight," Justice Howie said.
"The accused eventually stopped the attack, threw the knife on to the ground and said 'yeah, he's dead, he deserved it, he molested my girlfriend'."
"It is clear that he would be guilty of murder if not for the defence of mental illness," Justice Howie said.
