‘God’ told him to do it

“I believe he was tormented by auditory hallucinations and these took the form of God’s voice giving him instructions … and that he needed to protect himself from evil forces,” Yaren said.

Yaren said Li believed he had received a message from God telling him McLean “was a force of evil that was about to use a knife to execute him.”

Yaren said after killing McLean, Li feared he could come back to life.

Li dismembered McLean’s body and spread the body parts about the bus “to ensure (McLean) did not come back to life to carry out the execution,” Yaren said. “Having killed him, he was still terrified that through supernatural powers he was capable of coming back to life.”

Yaren said Li has admitted most of the allegations against him but “steadfastly denies” eating any parts of McLean’s body.

“I can only surmise that he blocked it from his consciousness … that it is too awful for him to contemplate.”

Li has no criminal record and prior to McLean’s killing he had never been accused of violence.

“He presents a kind of paradox,” Yaren said. “He presents as a gentle, polite, decent person … noted to be unusual, but always polite and deferential to others. It’s kind of an enigma. Why does somebody of that description commit such a brutal and violent act?”

Yaren said Li has “the potential for significant recovery,” but it will take several years.

Nearly two dozen of McLean’s family members and friends filled the back two rows of the courtroom, most wearing T-shirts emblazoned with McLean’s picture.

Outside court, McLean’s mother, Carol de Delley, said she has little sympathy for Li, regardless of his mental state at the time of the killing.

“I hate the illness without question. Does that mean that I forgive the act that the man perpetrated? No. No I don’t.”