A man who stabbed his “friendly and soft-hearted” father 18 times during a psychotic episode has been committed to the Central Mental Hospital for ongoing treatment having been found not guilty of murder by reason of insanity.
Ross O’Rourke (31), with a previous address in Tullow, Carlow, killed his father, Stefan Nivelles Posschier (65), at the deceased’s home in Kinnegad, Co Westmeath, between October 24th and 25th, 2022.
A jury of five men and seven women returned a unanimous verdict earlier this week, finding him not guilty by reason of insanity.
The trial heard that Mr O’Rourke developed a delusion that his father was mixed up with criminals and the IRA and that he posed a threat to his life. He also came to believe that his father had given him coded messages saying he wished to die.
READ MORE
Mr O’Rourke stabbed his father to death and then drove to a hospital, where he went to his grandmother’s bedside and told her he had killed her son.
Psychiatrists called by the prosecution and defence agreed that Mr O’Rourke was suffering from a schizophrenic mental disorder at the time of the killing and meets the criteria for the special verdict under the Criminal Law (Insanity) Act 2006.
At a hearing on Friday, Dr Dearbhla Duffy told defence counsel Michael Bowman SC that Mr O’Rourke continues to suffer from a mental disorder and lacks the capacity to make informed decisions about his psychiatric treatment and needs.
She said he needs continuing inpatient care at the Central Mental Hospital. Mr Justice Paul McDermott said the diagnosis was clear and ordered that Mr O’Rourke be committed for ongoing treatment. His condition will be considered by a review board at least every six months.
Mr Justice McDermott sympathised with the family of the deceased, who, he said, “are still enduring their grief arising from what happened”.
During the trial, Dr Ronan Mullaney told Mr Bowman that in the two years since Mr O’Rourke has been treated at the Central Mental Hospital, there has been only a partial improvement in his symptoms.
Dr Mullaney diagnosed Mr O’Rourke with a schizo-affective disorder. He said Mr O’Rourke’s acute psychosis at the time of the killing meant he was unable to regulate his emotions or to make a balanced appraisal of the situation.
Dr Mullaney concluded that due to his mental disorder, Mr O’Rourke was unable to refrain from killing his father and therefore meets the criteria for the special verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity.
Dr Anthony Kearns told Shane Costelloe SC, for the Director of Public Prosecutions, that Mr O’Rourke’s thought processes were “broken up” and he developed a persecutory belief that his life was in danger.
While Dr Kearns felt Mr O’Rourke knew the nature and quality of his actions, he concluded that he did not understand that it was wrong because of this sincere belief.
In his closing speech to the jury, Mr Bowman described the deceased as a man “against whom not a bad word was ever said”. Witnesses described Mr Posschier as placid, friendly and soft-hearted, counsel said.
The suggestion from his son that he had become involved in criminality or the IRA “simply wasn’t true”, Mr Bowman said, and was the “product of a deluded mind”.
When Mr O’Rourke had nowhere else to go, having been forcibly detained at the Cloverhill remand prison due to his mental illness, his father showed his “heart of gold” by agreeing to take him in, counsel said.
Following the killing, Mr Bowman said his client placed weights on the body, believing he was preventing his father from rising from the dead. He then drove to his grandmother’s home in Tullow, Co Carlow, and later told her that her eldest son was dead at his hand.
