A High Court judge yesterday again criticised the legislature over its failure to reform the law in relation to mental health.
Mr Justice Carney was speaking on the third day of the trial of Mr Damien Donnan, who is accused of murdering his mother.
It is the third case of its kind in three weeks and one, he suggested, which the present Victorian laws would be "least able to cope with".
In each of the previous two cases, a defence of insanity succeeded, but this particular case did not fit any of the insanity rules which, he said, "are frozen in time in the year 1843".
Mr Damien Donnan (20), of De Valera Park, Thomondgate, Limerick, has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Ms Jennifer Donnan (42) at the family home on April 17th, 2000. The court has heard that the accused had received psychiatric care and had been prescribed anti-depressants.
A defence witness, Ms Antoinette Riley, the deceased's sister, told the jury that the accused was "a lovely boy, very gentle" but he had been badly affected by the break-up of his parents' marriage.
In his closing submission, prosecution counsel Mr Patrick McCarthy SC said this was not a case of self-defence or provocation. The accused's statement, in which he admitted that he realised what he was doing, was "wholly inconsistent" with lack of self-control. He told the jury that, as such, manslaughter by reason of provocation was not open to it.
Summing up for the defence, Mr Patrick Gageby SC told the jury that it must consider the background to the case and the dysfunctional aspects within the family.
The accused was "a very disturbed young man" and it might have been better had he been committed to a psychiatric hospital.
The trial continues.