'Fantasist' kidnapped UK daughter
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An alleged fantasist accused of kidnapping his British-based daughter during a supervised visit in the US is "completely delusional" and not responsible for his actions, a court heard today.
Defence psychologist Catherine Howe told the Boston court that Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter - who calls himself Clark Rockefeller - suffers from delusional and narcissistic disorders which impair his judgment of what is right and wrong.
Gerhartsreiter, is accused of abducting Reigh Boss in Boston last July. The seven-year-old, known to the family as Snooks, was found six days later and reunited with her mother, Sandra Boss, a senior partner in the London office of the management consulting firm McKinsey & Co.
Gerhartsreiter's lawyers claim his mental condition meant that he unaware that his actions in snatching the child were wrong. They have previously claimed that he believed the child was communicating with him telepathically and asked him to rescue her.
But prosecutors say the German-born defendant is a conman and consummate liar. They allege that he was perfectly sane when he took the child.