Denver Suspect Was A Psychiatric Patient

The suspected Batman movie premiere gunman was seeing a university psychiatrist specialising in schizophrenia before the shooting that left 12 dead and dozens injured, according to court documents.

Defence lawyers for PhD student James Holmes, 24, made the disclosure in a court motion,

They raised the motion to try to discover the source of leaks to the media that Holmes sent the psychiatrist a package containing a notebook full of details and drawings of his plans to carry out an attack.

The package was seized by authorities on Monday after it was discovered in the post room at the University of Colorado, Denver.

It is unclear if it was sent before the attack on July 20 at the midnight showing of The Dark Knight Rises.

The motion said the leak violated a judge's gag order and jeopardised Holmes' right to a fair trial.

"The government's disclosure of this confidential and privileged information has placed Mr Holmes' constitutional rights to due process and a fair trial by an impartial jury in serious jeopardy," wrote the lawyers.

The motion added that the package contained communications between Holmes and his psychiatrist that should be shielded from public view. The document describes Holmes as a "psychiatric patient" of Dr Lynne Fenton.

The University of Colorado's website identifies her as the medical director of the school's Student Mental Health Services.

Casmir Spencer, a spokeswoman for the Arapahoe County District Attorney's office, said she could not comment.

Authorities said Holmes legally bought a semi-automatic rifle, a shotgun and two pistols at a sporting goods shop before the attack. To buy the guns, Holmes had to pass background checks that can take as little as 20 minutes in Colorado.

State law bars from purchasing firearms people who have been found mentally defective by a judge or have been committed to a mental institution. The statute makes no restrictions on buyers who are being treated for possible mental illness.

Holmes spent a year as a graduate student in the university's intimate, competitive neuroscience programme before dropping out without explanation three days after taking a year-end final, university officials have said.

They have refused to disclose more about Holmes, citing the judge's gag order on law enforcement agencies.

At a news conference earlier this week, they acknowledged that students in the programme that Holmes studied in are carefully monitored. They said a graduate student experiencing problems would normally be referred to student support services.

The alleged gunman gained access to the cinema in Aurora, Colorado, via a fire exit shortly after the screening of the premiere began and threw two canisters of noxious gas into the auditorium before shooting people at random, witnesses said.

Police in New York said Holmes referred to himself as "The Joker" - Batman's arch nemesis in the comic books and the films - on the night of the attack.

Holmes is being held in solitary confinement at the Arapahoe County Detention Centre and could face the death penalty if convicted, although Colorado has only executed one person since capital punishment was reinstated in 1976.

He is expected to be formally charged on Monday.