Winnipeg, Manitoba ? A Canadian judge ruled Thursday that a man accused of beheading and cannibalizing a fellow Greyhound bus passenger is not criminally responsible because of mental illness.

The decision means Chinese immigrant Vince Li will be treated in a mental institution instead of going to prison. The family of victim Tim McLean said Li got away with murder.

“A crime was still committed here, a murder still occurred,” said Carol deDelley, McLean’s mother. “There was nobody else on that bus holding a knife, slicing up my child.”

Li stabbed McLean dozens of times and dismembered his body last July while horrified passengers fled.

Justice John Scurfield said the attack was “barbaric” but “strongly suggestive of a mental disorder.”

“He did not appreciate the actions he committed were morally wrong,” Scurfield said.

Both the prosecution and the defense argued Li can’t be held responsible because he had schizophrenia and believed God wanted him to kill McLean because the young man was evil.

Li will be institutionalized without a criminal record and reassessed every year by a mental health review board to determine whether he is fit for release.