Murder trial jury rejects accused’s mental illness claim
A MAN who attacked his elderly neighbour with a machete leaving him so badly injured he had to be identified through dental records has been found guilty of murder.
A jury took a little over five hours to unanimously reject Patrick Mcdonagh’s claim that his responsibility for the “brutal” crime was substantially diminished because he was suffering an acute episode of schizophrenia.
During the two-week trial at the Central Criminal Court, the prosecution argued the symptoms the killer detailed to psychiatrists were evidence of “malingering”.
The State added if there was any abnormality in his mental state, it would most likely be accounted for by cannabis use.
Mcdonagh, who stabbed, slashed and chopped Peter Mcdonald, who was 73, with a machete and a knife, will be sentenced to life imprisonment by Mr Justice Michael Macgrath tomorrow when members of the deceased’s family will have the chance to address the court.
Witnesses described Mr Mcdonald as a “gentleman” who “kept himself to himself most of the time” and lived with his cats.
A Garda described how she had returned to the pensioner’s home to find him dead in his driveway just 14 minutes after she and her colleagues spoke to him about Mcdonagh, who had been in the victim’s garden chasing his cats.
Mcdonagh, 52, with an address at Whitechapel Road, Clonsilla, Dublin, denied murder but admitted manslaughter at the deceased’s home on Whitechapel Road on July 25, 2020.
SCREAMING
Mr Mcdonald’s body was discovered by gardai and paramedics on the driveway of his home in the early hours of the morning after neighbours reported hearing screaming.
Inside, forensic investigators found blood spattered across Mr Mcdonald’s bathroom, on a lampshade and throughout his hallway leading to where his body lay.
He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Meanwhile, armed gardai became engaged in a standoff with Mcdonagh, who had locked himself inside his own home. State pathologist Dr Linda Mulligan testified Mr Mcdonald died from multiple stab, slash and chop wounds inflicted by a machete and possibly a knife.
The most severe were to the neck and severed the carotid artery, damaged the jugular vein and fractured his skull and nose.
In his closing speech to the jury last Tuesday prosecutor Philip Rahn said the evidence shows Mcdonagh killed Mr Mcdonald in a “violent, sustained and merciless attack... leaving him no chance.”
Counsel described the killing as “horrific” and “brutal” and said the defence had not established that at the time of the attack Mcdonagh was operating under a mental disorder.
He told the court: “He is not only responsible for killing Mr Mcdonald but for his murder and a true verdict on the evidence is one of murder.” Defence counsel John Fitzgerald said his client has a lengthy psychiatric history with multiple diagnoses of schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder.
Then barrister added there was further evidence that Mcdonagh’s condition deteriorated in the lead-up to the killing and in the hours leading up to the attack he appeared to be “raging against the world”.