The jury in the trial of a man charged with murdering his wife has been listening to conflicting psychological evidence at the Central Criminal Court.
Dr Conor O'Neill, a consultant forensic psychiatrist with the Central Mental Hospital, told Roderick O'Hanlon SC, defending, that Anton Mulder was suffering from a moderate to mild depressive illness and had been showing symptoms of this for some months before his wife's death.
However, Dr Paul O'Connell, called by the prosecution in response, said he could not believe that Mr Mulder was suffering from a depressive illness and found him an "unreliable historian" who contradicted himself repeatedly.
He had formed the view that Mr Mulder was "cunning, deceitful, manipulative and plausible". His colleagues had "accepted at face value" everything that Mr Mulder had told them.
Mr Mulder (46), Maelduin, Dunshaughlin, Co Meath, from Durban in South Africa, denies murdering Colleen Mulder (41) on December 17th, 2004. She was strangled in her bed.
Dr O'Neill had told the court that he had based his findings on several interviews with Mr Mulder and had also had access to the book of evidence for the case and video footage of his interviews with gardaí.
Apart from describing feelings of depression, Mr Mulder had also been showing physical symptoms consistent with depression including loss of attention and sudden, drastic weight loss.
Dr O'Connell told Mr O'Hanlon that the drugs which Mr Mulder had been prescribed by his colleagues were commonly offered to prisoners having difficulty sleeping and adjusting to life in jail.