A man arrested in connection with the murder of Offaly native Michael Hughes in Dublin at the weekend had sought psychiatric treatment at two hospitals on three different days last week, it has emerged.
The 24-year-old had attended the A&E unit of Dublin's St James's Hospital on two occasions, and also attended the A&E unit of Dublin's St Vincent's Hospital. A spokesman for the hospitals said last night: "We are establishing the facts of what happened in this case."
The Health Service Executive said it was also establishing the facts and was co-operating with the Garda investigation.
It is understood the man may have left the hospitals of his own accord while he was undergoing an assessment process.
The man's wife called to a Dublin Garda station last week and told gardaí he had taken her keys and she and her child were locked out of the family apartment. She also said that her husband was suffering from depression, that she was concerned about him and that he had been acting erratically.
Gardaí arranged for her and her child to find safe accommodation and they began searching for her husband. However, they were unable to locate him.
Mr Hughes (30), of Cuba, Banagher, was stabbed more than 70 times with a garden shears at an apartment complex in Harold's Cross early on Saturday morning. He had travelled to Dublin on Friday night to attend a friend's engagement party.
The attack occurred as Mr Hughes slept in the corridor of the Manor Villas apartment complex, having been unable to gain access to a friend's accommodation where he was due to stay.
Banagher parish priest Fr Simon Cadam described Mr Hughes as a great person who was "very talented". He said news of the tragedy had shocked the entire community.
"Michael came from a very well-respected family and his parents Liam and Mary are very good community people.
"Michael was a real salt of the earth guy. He was a very intelligent and talented man who was studying for a master's degree in science," he said.
Mr Hughes was engaged to a local woman and had recently returned to Banagher to begin building a house. The murder suspect, who was arrested at the crime scene on Saturday morning, is receiving treatment at St James's Hospital.
Asked about the fact that the suspect attended two hospitals last week but had not been detained, Minister for Health Mary Harney said in Cork: "I don't know anything about it and it wouldn't be appropriate for me to comment on an individual case, particularly the case of somebody who is a suspect for a very brutal murder. But clearly they would be questions more appropriate for an individual hospital if that happened."
Dr Siobhán Barry, consultant psychiatrist and public relations officer of the Irish Psychiatric Association, said tragic things can happen within the psychiatric services "because a lot of our services have actually been dismantled and there is a knock-on effect of that".
She said that when a patient presented at A&E they were checked iand the psychiatrist was called, and this could take time. Sometimes people left before they were seen, she said.
She added that a report from the Health Research Board nine years ago recommended that information systems be available in the eastern region so that if someone presented with a significant psychiatric problem in one hospital it could be picked up in another if they presented there. But this system was still not in place.
