Knife blows ‘rained down’ on my head, man tells trial

A SCHIZOPHRENIC man used a knife to ‘rain down blows’ on the head of a shopper so hard that parts of the weapon remain lodged in the victim’s skull, a trial has heard.

Gerard Dowling has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity of the attempted murder of Simon Bourke, 60, at Market Cross Shopping Centre in Kilkenny City on July 13, last year.

Mr Bourke was walking in Kilkenny City with his partner Margaret O’Brien when they noticed Mr Dowling, who they did not know, following them, and stopping when they did. As they entered the shopping centre he got ‘quite close’ so Mr Bourke turned to him and asked: ‘Are you alright, or can I help you?’

Detailing the horrific attack that followed, Mr Bourke told the Central Criminal Court yesterday: ‘He took the knife out and launched straight into it. He lashed a blow into my shoulder and thereafter he rained down blows on my head.’ He was struck with ‘great force’ and it felt like a hammer or a rock hitting him.

His partner said: ‘He just started stabbing and stabbing... Simon just crumpled down to the ground.’

She screamed and tried to knock the knife out of the attacker’s hand with her handbag. She grew tearful as she said: ‘I knew he wanted to kill him. I could see it. If he stabbed him one more time he would be dead.’

The damage was so severe that doctors have been unable to remove parts of the knife from Mr Bourke’s head, as it would be too dangerous.

Paranoid schizophrenic Mr Dowling said he had gone to a psychiatric unit hours before the attack but didn’t get any help, saying ‘they seemed busy’. CCTV footage showed him entering Department of Psychiatry in St Luke’s Hospital, Kilkenny City, at 10.08am and leaving at 10.22am.

Mr Dowling, 40, of The Sycamores, Freshford Road, Kilkenny, has also pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to assaulting Mr Bourke causing him harm and to producing a knife during the same incident.

The trial continues today.