A man who beheaded his mother and buried her dismembered body in a shallow grave after she visited him from Ireland must stay in hospital, a judge has ordered.
Psychiatrists at the State Hospital, Carstairs, are still trying to assess James Dunleavy’s mental condition.
Philomena Dunleavy (66) had left her Dublin home in early April last year and arrived in Scotland on April 24th to visit her eldest son James, also known as Séamus.
Days later she was dead, butchered in his flat in Balgreen Road, Edinburgh.
A jury at the High Court in Edinburgh convicted Dunleavy, by majority, of a reduced charge of culpable homicide.
They also found him guilty of an attempted cover-up. Lord Jones told Dunleavy then: “You require to be detained under conditions of such security as can be provided in the State Hospital.”
Yesterday the judge continued his interim order for the doc tors to continue their work.
Gordon Jackson QC, defending, told the court that Dunleavy wanted the matter dealt with, but given what the doctors had said so far, that was “unrealistic”. Two months after his arrest, Dunleavy’s legal team arranged for his transfer from prison to the State Hospital, Carstairs.
Dunleavy is due back in court in June when the case is expected to be called at the high court in Perth.