A PSYCHIATRIST told the Central Criminal Court yesterday he believed Mr Brendan O'Donnell was suffering from a mental illness when he shot Ms Imelda Riney and was unable to control his own actions because he was acting on commands from outside his mind.
Dr Brian McCaffrey, a consultant psychiatrist, said he had doubts whether Mr O'Donnell knew the nature and quality of his act when he shot Imelda Riney.
There was no doubt Mr O'Donnell knew he had a gun, the gun was loaded and a bullet came out. He was not sure Mr O'Donnell fully appreciated that the hit from the bullet was a final act resulting in a permanent death.
Mr O'Donnell seemed in August 1994 to have a blurred concept of death, the doctor said. He seemed to believe his own mother had been smothered in her coffin and he could have saved her and he spoke of Father Joseph Walsh coming back to see him in Mountjoy Prison.
Dr McCaffrey said he believed Mr O'Donnell did not believe shooting Ms Riney was wrong. Mr O'Donnell had repeatedly said it was the right thing to do.
Even if Mr O'Donnell did know the nature and quality of his act in shooting Ms Riney, and knew it was wrong, the doctor believed he was at that time suffering from a mental disease, schizophrenia, and his mind was such that he did not have an ability to control his actions.
It was his view that Mr O'Donnell could not have stopped himself from what he was doing because of his disease. He believed that "in all probability" Mr O'Donnell could not have stopped himself from killing Liam Riney (Ms Riney's three year old son) but he could not say this with certainty.
He believed Mr O'Donnell was quite convinced it was not wrong to kill the child and thought he was doing the right thing. He was not sure whether Mr O'Donnell knew the nature and quality of his acts when he shot Liam.
Dr McCaffrey believed it was doubtful if Mr O'Donnell knew the nature and quality of his act in killing Father Joseph Walsh and it was doubtful he knew the killing would lead to a permanent death. He believed Mr O'Donnell did not know it was wrong.
The witness believed Mr O'Donnell could not have restrained himself from doing what he did because his actions were a direct result of some felt external direction from the devil to kill. This was coming from "disorganised thinking".
He said Mr O'Donnell had a very serious disease of the mind and did what he had done "directly as a result of a schizophrenic illness".
Dr McCaffrey was continuing his evidence on the 38th day of the trial of Mr O'Donnell (21), a native of Co Clare but of no fixed abode, who has denied 12 charges relating to events in the west of Ireland in 1994.
Mr O'Donnell has denied the murder of Imelda Riney (29) and her son Liam (3) between April 28th and May 8th, 1994. He also denied the murder of Father Joseph Walsh (37), the former curate of Eyrecourt, Co Galway, between May 3rd and 8th, 1994, and the false imprisonment of Father Walsh.
Mr O'Donnell has pleaded not guilty to kidnapping Ms Fiona Sampson and Mr Edward Cleary on May 7th, 1994 and to hijacking vehicles driven by them. He has also denied having a shotgun and ammunition with intent to endanger life and for unlawful purposes on the same date.
In court yesterday, Dr McCaffrey said it was his view that Mr O'Donnell suffered from schizophrenia known as hebephrenic or disorganised schizophrenia (HS) at the time of the events of 1994 and was still suffering from the disease.
He said schizophrenia was a mental illness recognised by the international psychiatric profession and classified by the World Health Organisation (WHO).
The witness read the WHO definitions of schizophrenia and HS to the court. He said Mr O'Donnell met the WHO criteria for schizophrenia very easily. He also filled the criteria for HS "as clearly as you can get it in anybody".
Dr McCaffrey said it was his view that Mr O'Donnell had HS since at least 1991. He had no doubt about his diagnosis. Mr O'Donnell had never been cured and was not cured now. His condition had improved considerably since the doctor first saw him in August 1994. He still had a delusional system and auditory hallucinations.
His diagnosis of HS was not dependent on Mr O'Donnell's telling him of hearing voices. He would still diagnose HS because of Mr O'Donnell's inappropriate affect or emotion, his behaviour and his disorganised thinking.
He disagreed with the view that Mr O'Donnell suffered from a borderline personality disorder (BPD) and not schizophrenia.
To accept Mr O'Donnell had BPD, he would have to exclude and ignore the blunting of emotions, the inappropriate laughter, persistent delusions that his sister was trying to poison him, that Father Walsh was going to christen the devil's baby son and that Imelda Riney was the devil's daughter.
Dr McCaffrey said Mr O'Donnell had a very abnormal relationship with his mother who was unable to detach herself from him. He said she seemed to be the type of mother that produced at schizophrenic son.
The reason behind the killings of Ms Riney, Liam Riney and Father Walsh were not those of a rational human being. Mr O'Donnell had not taken Ms Riney and shot her because he was angry with her over something she did. He took her away "for a very bizarre reason due to his delusional thinking". He was responding to commands telling him she was the devil's daughter.
It was his view that Mr O'Donnell knew at all relevant times that he had a gun and ammunition. He probably knew he was doing something illegal by continuing to have the gun.
Cross examined by Mr Kevin Haugh SC, prosecuting, Dr McCaffrey agreed that only a small minority of killers were insane. He agreed psychiatrists were familiar with the concept of blood lust and torture and that many people got kicks from violence.
He agreed there was no recorded history of schizophrenia in Mr O'Donnell's family. He accepted that no label of schizophrenia was ever put on Mr O'Donnell's mother. He said the hospital notes on Mrs O'Donnell were unsatisfactory and said she had been treated with a heavy dosage of a drug which is used in the treatment of schizophrenia.
He agreed no diagnosis of schizophrenia had been made regarding Mr O'Donnell until he (witness) had done so. He agreed no firm diagnosis of psychosis was made but added there was a time when Mr O'Donnell was in Trinity House that a doctor there had diagnosed psychosis. He agreed there were a lot of notes in Mr O'Donnell's record saying he was not psychotic.
Dr McCaffrey said he had quite a good relationship with Mr O'Donnell. He agreed he had visited him on Christmas Day because he felt sorry for him as he would have had no visitors. He disagreed it was bad for psychiatrists to have sympathy or empathy with patients.
Mr Haugh suggested that Mr O'Donnell had been encouraged from the outset of meeting the defence psychiatrists in being mad rather than bad. The witness disagreed.
Dr McCaffrey agreed that Mr O'Donnell was "cunning". He said Mr O'Donnell had told him he had given certain answers during the trial because he thought they would sound good in court.
He agreed that in an interview in August 1994 Mr O'Donnell had made no mention of killing Father Walsh because the devil told him to. The witness said Mr O'Donnell had not admitted to him he had shot Ms Riney until during his trial, on February 15th last. The trial continues today before Mr Justice Lavan and the jury.