A JURY has found a paranoid schizophrenic "not guilty by reason of insanity" of stabbing his consultant psychiatrist in the stomach, leaving him with life-threatening injuries that required emergency surgery.
Gavin Francis (26), Earls Cliff, Ceannchor Road, Howth, had pleaded not guilty to intentionally or recklessly causing Dr Michael McDonagh serious harm on September 19th, 2006.
The jury at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court which heard admissions at the start of the trial from defence counsel, Luan Ó Braonain SC, on behalf of his client, took 67 minutes to reach its verdict on day two of the trial.
Judge Desmond Hogan thanked the jurors for performing "an important function" and ordered that Mr Francis be transferred to the Central Mental Hospital (CMH) where he should remain and undergo the appropriate treatment until further notice. He has been resident there since the stabbing.
The jury heard how Mr Francis told gardaí that it was "in his head" to stab his doctor 30 times and that "in his fantasy" he would even cut his head off. Mr Francis told gardaí that Dr McDonagh had been the "big authority" in his life and was "a good man, a good doctor" but he found "it harder and harder not to think of doing him in".
The knife entered the front of Dr McDonagh's stomach, left through the back, and pierced his pancreas. He required 13 units of blood and spent time in intensive care before leaving hospital.
Sgt John Fitzgerald told Shane Costelloe, prosecuting, that Mr Francis said he bought a kitchen knife from Clerys and a box of chocolates from a newsagent on the morning of the attack.
During the consultation with Dr McDonagh he tried to keep the idea of using the knife out of his head but "two seconds" after he gave him the chocolates, he saw the knife in his rucksack, grabbed it and stabbed him.
Sgt Fitzgerald said Mr Francis told gardaí he bought the chocolates because he wanted to give Dr McDonagh a gift for treating him for the previous two years. He said the doctor was his "only association with everything that was wrong in my life" and added: "You might say that the medication was worse than the illness."
Prof Harry Kennedy, clinical director of the CMH, told Mr Costelloe that Mr Francis was suffering from paranoid schizophrenia when he assaulted Dr McDonagh. He said that at the time he had many urges to harm people, especially Dr McDonagh.
Prof Kennedy said Mr Francis found this and other urges "profoundly unpleasant" and that he tried "to banish them, struggled with them and tried to resist them". He said the severity of Mr Francis's illness meant his reasoning was impaired and he was unable to refrain from stabbing Dr McDonagh.
Dr Paul O'Connell, a consultant psychiatrist who has been treating Mr Francis at the CMH, said that in his opinion Mr Francis showed "marked symptoms of a mental disorder" at the time he stabbed Dr McDonagh and it was his belief that "he was not morally processing" what he was doing.