A man who fatally stabbed a beloved paramedic in the car park of a McDonald’s in south-west Sydney cannot be found criminally responsible for the frenzied attack, a court has been told.

Jordan James Fineanganofo appeared before the Sydney Supreme Court on Monday, having previously pleaded not guilty through a mental health plea to the stabbing death of Steven Tougher.

The soon-to-be father was with a colleague in the Campbelltown McDonald’s car park shortly after 5am on April 14, 2023, after picking up food when Mr Fineanganofo approached him.

The court was told the 22-year-old said nothing before launching a frenzied attack on the young paramedic, who tried to defend himself but was “stuck” in the ambulance door.

Mr Fineanganofo stabbed Mr Tougher 55 times, leaving 24 slash wounds. Mr Fineanganofo continued to attack Mr Tougher after he fell to the ground and ignored bystanders’ attempts to stop.

The agreed facts state that Mr Fineanganofo said “I want to die” and “I’m going to die anyway, I might as well kill him” before demanding an apology from one of the intervening witnesses.

Mr Fineanganofo continued to attack the paramedic, saying “I’m going to kill you” before police arrived and deployed a stun gun. The horrific attack lasted three minutes.

Mr Tougher, who was in a critical condition, was taken by ambulance to Liverpool Hospital but suffered a heart attack on the way. He was declared dead after the intervention, which lasted one hour and 40 minutes.

The court was told an agreement had been reached between the Crown and Mr Fineanganofo’s lawyers to find “special circumstances” under the provisions of the NSW Mental Health Act.

By law, a person cannot be held criminally responsible for a crime because of a mental or cognitive impairment. The matter will return for decision on Friday.

Outside court, Mr Tougher’s father, Jeff Tougher, said during the hearings that the broken family had to be there to “get the facts” but that it was “difficult to accept other people’s opinions”.

“The saddest part of all this is that if this person had asked my son for help, he would have been showered with compassion and received the best treatment possible,” she said.

When asked Friday about the outcome of the petition for special due diligence, Jeff Tougher said the family wanted to “get this out of the way” but would not comment further on the matter.

“You saw how difficult it is for us… It is very difficult to accept other people’s opinions. Decisions have been made and there’s nothing we can do about it right now. “We think about the safety of the society,” he said.

The Crown presented psychology reports stating that Mr Fineanganofo had suffered from schizophrenia since adolescence and had suffered psychosis despite being unmedicated.

Various doctors reported that Mr. Fineanganofo said he heard voices or auditory hallucinations in his head that guided his thoughts and that he felt it was impossible not to follow them.

Before the attack, his mother reported that he had become increasingly withdrawn for weeks, especially in the week before the incident, and was researching “how to tie a hangman’s noose.”

“She believed he was committing what she believed might be final acts, including transferring their money to himself, and reported two nights earlier that he intended to kill himself by hanging,” the Crown said.

The prosecutor told the court that Mr Fineanganofo’s actions leading to Mr Tougher’s murder were consistent with his desire to kill himself, including buying rope from Bunnings Warehouse.

That was where Mr Fineanganofo’s hours-long campaign of terror began after he ordered a young mother with her baby to “get the hell out” of a lift and attacked a car with a knife, the court heard.

Early the next day, Mr. Fineanganofo briefly followed another driver into a 7/11 gas station, flashed his lights and honked the horn of his sister’s car.

The court was told that when he arrived at the station, Mr Fineanganofo confronted the driver with a knife and told the man “you’re a man, you’re a man” before the driver fled across the road.

Mr Fineanganofo then returned to the petrol station and attacked another driver leaving the 11 September, who told police the 22-year-old was “laughing sadistically” before running away.

Mr Fineanganofo continued to threaten and challenge two more drivers (one of whom had stopped on the side of the road and narrowly missed being stabbed) before driving to McDonald’s.

Mr. Fineanganofo kept his eyes downward as he reaffirmed his innocence. Mr. Tougher’s family and friends burst into tears when the final charge of murder was read aloud.

Mr Tougher’s family read the agreed facts extensively and were often moved to tears as details of the paramedic’s horrific murder were read aloud to the court.

Mr. Tougher had only been on the job for a year when he was killed, and he had married his wife, Madison Tougher, who was pregnant with the couple’s first child at the time, just five weeks earlier.

Mr Fineanganofo faced eight charges: murder, arming and using an offensive weapon, burglary, damaging or destroying property, wounding, stalking and DV-related assault.