A woman who is on trial for the murder of her eight-year-old son was a "misdiagnosed schizophrenic" and could have recovered if she had been "listened to", a murder trial jury heard yesterday.
Dr Brian McCaffrey, a specialist in forensic psychiatry, was giving evidence for the defence at the trial of Ms Jacqueline Costello (30), formerly from Woodlawn Grove, Waterford. Ms Costello has pleaded not guilty to the murder of her eldest son, Robert, on October 28th, 2000.
Dr McCaffrey told Mr Paddy McCarthy SC, defending, that Dr Derek O'Sullivan, consultant psychiatrist to the accused woman, had been treating her since 1995 with medication for depression, not for schizophrenia. "She was given different types of medication for depression . . . Coming on 12 months after a delivery, it couldn't have been 'baby blues'."
At one stage Dr O'Sullivan had prescribed a drug for the treatment of schizophrenia and Ms Costello had "responded well" to it. "To me, that was a clue to the diagnosis. It was not for the treatment of depression, but she responded," Dr McCaffrey said. This drug was discontinued and she had resumed taking anti-depressants and mood-stabilisers.
Dr McCaffrey said that Ms Costello should not have been allowed to leave Waterford Regional Hospital on the morning of the young boy's death. "She should have been admitted, she should have been detained as an involuntary patient and committed," he said.
He told the court that when she strangled and suffocated her son she had "felt she was doing the right thing", that there was an "evil spirit inside Robert".
"She was actually killing Robert, but she did not realise it. She could not have been persuaded to stop," he said. "She was so psychotic that she felt she was doing the right thing."
The trial continues today in the Central Criminal Court.