"He is a textbook example of paranoid disorder": Criminologist tells Telegraf.rs about Ripanj killer's profile

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The day before yesterday, Stojan Ilic (38) from Ripanj, a Belgrade suburb, killed and, as is suspected, also raped 16-year-old N.P. from the same place, and then returned to the victim's home and attacked her family members with a knife.

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As criminologist Radomir Colakovic explains, Stojan certainly has a mental disorder, but that does not mean that he was not (legally) sane during the time the murder was committed.

"It is a mental disorder or a disease, but a distinction should be made between the two. When it comes to a mental disorder, something is structurally wrong and usually the condition is inherited. Thus, there are emotionally immature personalities who do not behave according to their age. This disorder of his is a textbook example of a paranoid disorder. That means deranged thinking. This disorder is characterized by the fact that the patient is obsessed with certain insane ideas, so you cannot dissuade him otherwise. You know that there is a saying, '1,000 sane people cannot convince one crazy person'," Colakovic tells Telegraf.rs.

According to him, no matter what you say to such a person, you will achieve nothing. You cannot convince them of anything, because they have their own interpretation of what is happening around them. If this is only about a paranoid personality disorder, psychotherapy and psychopharmacotherapy are available for that. When it comes to schizophrenia, it is more difficult to treat, but it can be amortized and treated as much as possible.

"He analyzes the people, conditions, situations around him from his sick aspect. For example, he imagines that someone is following him, that they want to poison him, make fun of him. In fact, this is how he interprets normal human behavior. For example, you offer him cake, and he believes that you want to poison him, even though you are his best friend. We are dealing with deranged ideas here. With such people, a small conflict, some simple quarrel can cause an eruption of destructive feelings, thoughts and irrational beliefs, so that murder occurs. Those patients with personality disorders can be very aggressive, have violent physical and verbal reactions," he adds.

Such people, he says, are filled with fear and often commit suicide.

"And behind that, as with this man, schizophrenia can be present because these insane ideas are often present in schizophrenics - they lose touch with reality, interpret everything in their own way, there are hallucinations. There was that case a few years ago when a man killed eight people and in the end shot his wife and said he was saving her. Fortunately, she survived. But he thought he was saving her. These are totally irrational convictions," explains Colakovic.

However, it does not necessarily mean that Stojan was legally insane at the time of the crime. Colakovic also points out that schizophrenics can be rational.

"One part of the personality of a schizophrenic is also functional. If he planned something, drove the girl away, then raped her... It's not all random. There is a plan and some cognitive aspects there. He knew what he was doing. He only did it from the position of being ill and mentally disturbed. It does not mean that he will avoid legal responsibility," concludes Colakovic.

(Telegraf.rs)