A jury has heard that a 32-year-old man who killed his father by stabbing him with a second World War bayonet was suffering from a relapse of schizophrenia and should not be found guilty of murder by reason of insanity.
Dr Patrick McLaughlin, a consultant forensic psychiatrist based in the Central Mental Hospital, on Thursday told the Central Criminal Court that Gareth Sheeran gave an incoherent account of being told by someone in the Phoenix Park to kill his own father three years before the stabbing, and he said that the defendant suffered from persecutory delusions and disorganised thinking.
Mr Sheeran, with an address at Carriglea View in Firhouse, Dublin, is charged with the murder of his father, Harry Sheeran (65) at the same address on Father’s Day, June 20th, 2021. He has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.
In his opening remarks to the jury, prosecuting counsel James B Dwyer SC said that the prosecution would be calling a psychiatrist, as would the defence, and both psychiatrists are of the view that the accused is entitled to raise the defence of not guilty by reason of insanity.
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Det Garda Austin Larkin gave evidence to Mr Dwyer that when the gardaí arrived at the house on the night, they found Harry Sheeran lying on the ground in a large pool of blood that was around his waist and feet. They also saw blood on the defendant’s legs and T-shirt.
Det Garda Larkin said that when the gardaí asked what had happened, the defendant said: “I was upset. I attacked him.” The detective said that the defendant told gardaí that he stabbed his father with a “WWII bayonet-type of thing”.
Det Garda Larkin gave further evidence that a man renting a room in the house from the deceased said that, some time before the stabbing, he was in his room wearing headphones, but he thought he heard someone beating Gareth Sheeran up in the next room. He said he heard the defendant say, “Get off, get off, leave me alone”, but there was no one else in the room with Mr Sheeran.
Det Garda Austin also said that a next-door neighbour said she heard things being thrown, “like furniture rumbling”, but she did not hear anyone saying anything. She said it sounded like “someone fell out of the attic”, and she said she then heard “a wail of anguish”.
The detective went on to confirm that Dr Heidi Okkers performed the postmortem on Harry Sheeran, finding stab wounds on the chest, two wounds on his back, two on his left arm, and one to the right leg. Dr Okkers said that Harry Sheeran experienced multiple sharp force injuries, and one stab wound caused injuries to his heart. The pathologist said that there was significant blood loss from the leg wound, and death occurred through stab wounds to the chest and leg.
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The jury also heard evidence of the defendant’s mental health history from Dr McLaughlin. He told Mr Dwyer that the defendant’s first contact with mental health services was at the age of 22, when he was concerned about “electromagnetic frequencies” causing him sleep loss. The defendant had two psychiatric admissions, and Dr McLaughlin said that his last contact with mental health services was in 2018.
The psychiatrist gave evidence that the defendant told him about an event in 2018 at the Phoenix Park, in which Mr Sheeran was with his girlfriend from Japan when two men approached them. Dr McLaughlin said it was very difficult to follow the narrative being put forward by Mr Sheeran, but it appeared that on this occasion Mr Sheeran believed he received information about his father, with someone saying to him: “Kill your father, we’ll help you.” Dr McLaughlin said that the defendant was quite incoherent in this account, but he was not being “wilfully incoherent”.
Dr McLaughlin said the defendant suffers from a major mental illness, namely schizophrenia. He said that the defendant suffers from persistent delusions, delusions of reference, persecutory delusions and disorganised thinking, the latter of which Dr McLaughlin described as “word salad”.
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He said that at the time of the killing, Mr Sheeran’s mental illness had been untreated for three years, and he was more than likely suffering a relapse of schizophrenia and the symptoms were present at the time of the killing. He said that Mr Sheeran had a long history of believing he was being targeted, and he had the unusual belief that killing his father would help him in some way.
Dr McLaughlin said that at the time the defendant stabbed his father, he was suffering from a mental disorder to such an extent that he did not know the nature of the act, did not know it was wrong and could not refrain from doing it. He confirmed that Mr Sheeran satisfied all three possible requirements for a verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity.
The trial continues on Friday before Mr Justice Tony Hunt and the jury of seven men and five women.