Man who killed father with bayonet found not guilty of murder by reason of insanity

A 32-year-old man with schizophrenia who killed his father on Father’s Day by stabbing him with a second World War bayonet has been found not guilty of murder by reason of insanity.

The jury in the Central Criminal Court trial of Gareth Sheeran, of Carriglea View in Firhouse, Dublin, deliberated for just 42 minutes before returning their unanimous verdict on Friday to Mr Justice Tony Hunt.

Mr Sheeran had pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to the murder of his father, Harry Sheeran (65) at the same address on Father’s Day, June 20th, 2021.

Mr Justice Hunt thanked the panel for their service in the case and exempted them from jury service for a period of seven years.

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He said the case was a “tragedy for all concerned” and said his thoughts went out to the Sheeran family and particularly the accused’s mother who had lost her husband. “This can’t be an easy process for them,” he said.

In his charge to the jury, Mr Justice Hunt said that “the evidence points all in one direction in this case”.

He said expert evidence had been heard from two very experienced psychiatrists who both agreed Mr Sheeran was suffering from a mental disorder at the time of the killing and that he fulfilled the criteria that entitled him to the special verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity.

“If you are agreed the appropriate result at the end of the day is that Mr Sheeran was suffering from a mental disorder and that he fulfilled one of the three criteria then he is entitled to the special verdict,” Mr Justice Hunt told the jury.

On Friday morning, Dr Ronan Mullaney, a consultant forensic psychiatrist at the Central Mental Hospital called by the defence, gave evidence to Eilis Brennan SC, for Mr Sheeran, that the defendant was most likely suffering from acute psychosis at the time of the killing.

Psychosis

He said this psychosis would have led to a significant impairment of Mr Sheeran’s mental functioning and his control at the time would have been circumscribed by his belief that he was at imminent risk of death.

Dr Mullaney said in his expert opinion, Mr Sheeran satisfied all three of the possible criteria for a defence of not guilty by reason of insanity.

The trial had heard that when the gardaí arrived at the house on the night of the killing, they found Gareth Sheeran’s father 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.

Detective Garda Austin Larkin gave evidence 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 “bayonet-type of thing”.

Dr Patrick McLaughlin, a consultant forensic psychiatrist based in the Central Mental Hospital, previously told the court that Mr Sheeran suffers from schizophrenia.

Untreated

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 gave evidence that the defendant told him about an event in 2018 in the Phoenix Park, when he said he was approached by two men. Dr McLaughlin said it was very difficult to follow the narrative being put forward by Mr Sheeran, but it appeared that on this occasion the defendant 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”.

Mr Justice Hunt adjourned the matter to August 25th.