Psychiatrist tells court murder accused was mentally ill

A psychiatrist treating a man accused of murder told a jury in the Central Criminal Court yesterday the killing was "illness-…

A psychiatrist treating a man accused of murder told a jury in the Central Criminal Court yesterday the killing was "illness-driven".

Mr Derek Gibbons (37) has pleaded not guilty to the murder of his neighbour, Mr Gerard Doyle (40), on December 21st, 1996. Both men were residents of Markievicz House, Dublin, at the time of the killing.

A consultant psychiatrist, Dr Brian McCaffrey, of the Central Mental Hospital in Dundrum, told the court that his client, the accused, had suffered from "a major form of mental illness, probably back to 1993".

The condition involved sound hallucinations, including voices shouting very loudly at him "You're a queer, you're a queer", and a small whispering voice telling him to "Do it, do it", Dr McCaffrey said.

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"He believed these voices were real and people were out to harm him and he didn't think they were imaginary," he said.

The accused believed he was threatened by youths who lived in his area and "as far as he was concerned it was real. He went to the Garda station and to his solicitor to complain. They were very real," he said.

The accused man's actions were "illness-driven, responding to a severe form of mental illness with auditory hallucinations and he could not have stopped himself from acting," Dr McCaffrey said.

At the time of the killing the accused had "no control . . . His illness takes over," he said. The accused was now residing in the Central Mental Hospital. Previously, the prosecution had heard evidence that within an hour of stabbing Mr Doyle with a large hunting knife, Mr Gibbons admitted to gardai: "I did it".

In his summing up for the jury, Mr Hugh Harnett SC, defending, said five psychiatrists had all given their "unshaken view" that the accused was "so psychotic, so out of contact with reality, so distressed, so mentally ill, that he could not refrain from killing Mr Doyle". The case continues today.