A jury has convicted a young man of the murder of a 65-year-old “gentleman” who had taken both the defendant and his mother into his home after learning of their struggles with homelessness, rejecting his defence that he was entitled to a verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity.
A consultant psychiatrist had told the jury that the first time Brian Ibe (23) reported hearing voices in his head was more than a year after he was remanded in custody, on the same day his awareness of the possibility of the special verdict was first documented.
The jury of six men and six women at the Central Criminal Court deliberated for just under seven hours before delivering their unanimous verdict on Wednesday.
Ibe, of no fixed abode and formerly of Moore Park, Newbridge, Co Kildare, had pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to the murder of Peter Kennedy between April 28th and May 12th, 2020, both dates inclusive, in Newbridge.
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He had also pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to assault causing harm to Garda Brendan O’Donnell at Newbridge Garda station on or about April 29th, 2020. The jury found him guilty of both charges.
The trial heard that Mr Kennedy took Ibe’s mother, Martha, into his home after learning she was living in her car. In 2019, Mr Kennedy invited Brian Ibe to join them, but neighbours soon became concerned about the older man’s welfare.
Martha Ibe, in a statement written down by gardaí and read to the jury, said she had known Peter Kennedy for years and described him as a “lovely man” and a “kind gentleman”. She said her son moved in with them in Moore Park but went to live at a Peter McVerry Trust hostel in Walkinstown, Dublin, after Mr Kennedy phoned gardaí and demanded he leave.
On April 28th, 2020, she said she was watching a DVD in her bedroom when she heard glass smashing. Mr Kennedy ran from another room, shouting, “Come quick, I think it’s Brian” and went to walk past Ms Ibe into the bedroom. She then saw her son walking up the stairs, holding a knife with a blade that was five or six inches long. She said her son “zoomed past me to get to Peter” and began “pushing the knife with a jabbing motion, at least six times, into Peter’s neck”.
The defence did not dispute that Brian Ibe assaulted Mr Kennedy and that he died as a result. However, the defence asked the jury to consider whether Ibe qualified for a verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity or of manslaughter due to diminished responsibility as a result of a mental disorder.
Dr Stephen Monks, a consultant psychiatrist, told defence counsel Daniel O’Connell that he diagnosed Ibe with schizophrenia and found that at the time of the assault he was psychotic. He said Ibe’s psychotic state was a significant contributing factor to the assault and without the psychosis it was unlikely the assault would have happened. He said it was possible that Ibe did not understand the nature and quality of his actions and, therefore, the court could consider that Ibe met the criteria for the special verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity.
Dr Mary Davoren, a psychiatrist called by the prosecution, disagreed with the schizophrenia diagnosis. The threats he made to Mr Kennedy were goal-directed and rational, she said, and not evidence of the development of schizophrenia.
The first time that he reported hearing voices, Dr Davoren said, was one year and 13 days after he was remanded to Cloverhill Prison. This was, she said, the same day that it was first documented that Ibe was aware of the possibility of a verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity.
After the jury returned their verdict, Ms Justice Greally thanked them for the exemplary way they had deliberated in the case and excused them from jury service for life.
The matter was put back to May 19th next for sentencing, with Ibe remanded in custody. He now faces the mandatory sentence of life in prison.
