PETALING JAYA, Sept. 23 -- The 15-year-old boy who killed his female schoolmate at a secondary school in Bandar Utama, Petaling Jaya, last year had come to view the victim and those around him as "NPCs", the Shah Alam High Court was told.

In gaming terminology, an NPC - or non-player character - refers to background characters controlled by the game rather than by a human player, and the term is sometimes used online to imply that a person lacks agency or individuality.

In her full grounds of judgment, Judge Adlin Abdul Majid said this was disclosed in a psychiatric report prepared by Dr Ian Lloyd Anthony, the director and senior consultant forensic psychiatrist at Hospital Bahagia Ulu Kinta.

In disclosing his findings, Dr Ian highligh...