A jury has heard that the teenager accused of attacking his classmates and tutor with a baseball bat in August 2017 heard alien voices in his head compelling him to act violently.
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The retrial of Alex Ophel, 19, began on Monday with the empanelment of a new jury and opening statements by the prosecution and defence barristers.
The jury in the first trial was discharged after the jurors could not reach a unanimous decision.
Mr Ophel is charged with five counts of attempted murder against four classmates and his tutor in his statistics class at the Australian National University.
Defence barrister John Purnell SC said it would not be challenged that Mr Ophel had attacked the five people and caused them significant injuries, and the defence would not challenge the accounts of witnesses.
Mr Ophel has pleaded not guilty by way of mental impairment, and Mr Purnell said it would be argued that Mr Ophel was not in control of his actions and could not reasonably determine whether his actions were wrong.
The attack left two victims with broken arms and another two victims with fractured skulls. One victim lost part of their finger.
Prosecutor Shane Drumgold told the jury that Mr Ophel had an obsession with school killings, had experienced declining results at university and had an unrequited attraction towards a female friend, all of which contributed to Mr Ophel's actions on the day of the attack.
The jury heard Mr Ophel had performed Google searches for "ACT murder laws", "ACT life sentences" and "ISIS beheadings live links", along with posting online "how easy is it to kill someone with a baseball bat?"
He had also visited a white-supremacist website, the jury heard.
Mr Drumgold said the attack had involved a thought-out plan, including picking a classroom which Mr Ophel believed to be isolated and difficult to escape from as it required a swipe card. His plan, Mr Drumgold told the jury, was to kill everyone in the room except one girl who he had planned to rape.
However, Mr Purnell said Mr Ophel's actions were clearly the actions of someone suffering from psychosis and mental impairment.
Mr Purnell told the jury they would hear evidence from a number of mental health experts who believed Mr Ophel to be mentally impaired at the time of the attack and that he believed he was operating under pressure from alien beings that could hear and respond to his thoughts.
The arresting police officer thought Mr Ophel was under the influence of drugs, Mr Purnell told the jury, as he appeared to be dazed, was talking nonsensically and repeatedly licked his lips.
However, tests proved Mr Ophel was not under the influence of drugs and his behaviour could only be due to mental impairment, Mr Purnell contended.
The trial continues.
