A MAN who killed a stranger with garden shears, because he thought he was the devil, has pleaded not guilty to murder by reason of insanity at the Central Criminal Court.
The court heard how he had sought medical help in the days before the killing.
Thomas Connors (25), of Manor Court, Mount Argus, Harold’s Cross, Dublin, had sought medical help on three occasions in the days before he killed Michael Hughes and was waiting to be taken from St Vincent’s hospital to St James’s hospital by ambulance to be admitted when he absconded.
He said he thought 30-year-old Mr Hughes was the devil when he savagely attacked him in the stairwell of the Manor Villa apartment block on the morning of December 15th, 2007.
Dr Damien Mohan, a fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists and consultant at the Central Mental Hospital, was called to give evidence by defence counsel Ciarán Ó Loughlin SC.
Dr Mohan said Mr Connors had a history of psychiatric illness and had sought medical help in the days leading up to the killing.
Dr Mohan said Mr Connors’s father suffered from schizophrenia. The defendant had lived with his wife and child in Harold’s Cross for the previous six months.
He had been admitted to hospital with psychosis in 2004 and 2005.
His delusions had involved religious preoccupations. He had believed that he was God and everyone else was Lucifer.
The jury heard he was a cannabis user and while that may have contributed to his mental state, Dr Mohan did not consider it to be the major factor in his actions. He had no history of violence and one previous conviction for not having tax or insurance.
Four days before he killed Mr Hughes, the defendant went to the accident and emergency department of St James’s Hospital. He was seen by a triage nurse but then left.
Two days later he returned with his wife and child and said he had stopped taking his medication. He was given a prescription for anti-psychotic medication and was told that he fell within the catchment area of St Vincent’s hospital.
The next day, he went to St Vincent’s where it was decided that he should be admitted to St James’s. He waited a number of hours while an ambulance was arranged but absconded before he was transferred.
Dr Mohan said that Mr Connors’s wife said she had been frightened by her husband’s behaviour. She tried to get him hospitalised but he was just given pills so she got on a bus and travelled to a woman’s shelter with their child.
The case continues today.