A paranoid schizophrenic who stalked his younger brother to a shopping centre before killing him with a samurai sword has been found not guilty by way of mental impairment.

GRAPHIC CONTENT WARNING: This report contains details that may cause distress for some readers.

In the moments after he struck down his sibling with the Japanese-style blade, Jonathan Dick pulled another knife from the waistband of his pants and stabbed his brother in the head and neck.

But Mr Dick, now 42, thought that he would not go to prison over the attack, which took place over 66 seconds, because he would be “transported to the future”.

Today, Justice Lex Lasry accepted that Mr Dick was in the grips of bizarre, grandiose and persecutory delusions when he killed his brother, and thought harm would come to his family if he did not carry out the attack.

“He chose a method of killing his brother that he thought would be effective and quick,” Justice Lasry told the Supreme Court of Victoria.

Justice Lasry also accepted Mr Dick’s mental impairment defence on accusations that he stalked and attempted to murder a childhood friend.

“I am satisfied, on the unchallenged evidence from two professional witnesses, that at the time these three offences were committed, the accused was suffering from a mental impairment such that he did not know what he was doing was wrong,” he said.

“I therefore direct a verdict of not guilty by reason of mental impairment be recorded in relation to all three charges.”

Former fugitive arrested after being restrained by childhood friend

Shortly after 6:00am on February 3, 2017, Mr Dick stalked his brother, David, to the Doncaster Shopping Centre where he lay in wait.

As David left the elevator, Mr Dick unsheathed a samurai sword that was hidden in a spirit-level case and swung, striking his younger brother across the face with a double-handed blow.

He then dropped the sword and stabbed his brother in the head and neck.

“The cause of death was a catastrophic haemorrhage,” Justice Lasry said.

Following the bloody attack, Mr Dick went on the run but reappeared more than a year later and attacked his childhood friend, David Cammarata, with a pick hammer.

Mr Dick was once the best man at Mr Cammarata’s wedding.

After this attack, Mr Dick went on the run again but was dramatically arrested in 2019 after Mr Cammarata spotted him in a carpark near Flinders Street in Melbourne’s CBD.

Jonathan Dick was arrested after more than two years on the run. Photo: ABC News/Iskhandar Razak

To protect himself following the pick hammer attack, Mr Cammarata had moved house and was in the habit of alternating his morning parking spot and meeting a colleague who escorted him to work.

But on the morning of August 19, 2019, he and his colleague saw Mr Dick loitering at the entrance to the car park.

They confronted Mr Dick, who was carrying a bucket and trying to escape on a bicycle, in Hosier Lane and tackled him before restraining the man until police arrived.

Investigators later found a hammer, knife and pair of gloves in the bucket.

Mr Dick was today remanded in custody and will return to court at a later date.

-ABC