Throat-slasher found guilty of the attempted murder of civil servant
A 37-YEAR-OLD woman has been found guilty of trying to murder a civil servant by slashing her neck as she walked home from work two years ago.
Laura Kenna had argued that she was legally insane at the time and had attacked Fionnuala Burke in the context of delusions about death, vampires and cannibalism.
Kenna, of no fixed abode, was charged with attempting to murder Ms Burke on Lower Drumcondra Road in the city on January 3, 2017, and of assault causing serious harm to her on the same occasion.
She had pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to both counts and went on trial at the Central Criminal Court.
The trial heard that Ms Burke was working for the Department of Social Protection, and was walking home when she noticed a woman sitting on a wall outside a house.
As Ms Burke approached, the woman, Laura Kenna, sprang up and pushed her back onto a grassy area. Kenna didn’t say anything, but started to stab her.
Ms Burke felt the short stab wounds and could also feel her face being slashed, before she felt a dramatic slash straight across her neck.
Kenna then spoke, telling Ms Burke that she’ d let her go if
she handed over her bag.
The jury saw photographs of the large, deep cut across Ms Burke’s neck. It had penetrated through muscle and cut through the thyroid gland. She was operated on and treated in intensive care after the attack. She also had other injuries to herfaceandbody.
Ken na later admitted to gard aí:“I sliced her like you would a goat.”
Conflict
The main issue for the jury to consider was Kenna’s state of mind at the time; there was a conflict of opinion between the experts on this issue.
A consultant psychiatrist engaged by the defence testified that the accused was suffering from a mental disorder at the time, and so was entitled to the special defence of not guilty by reason of insanity.
Dr Stephen Monks of the Central Mental Hospital (CMH) told the jury that she was suffering from schizoaffective disorder, a chronic mental illness related to schizophrenia.
However, a consultant psychiatrist engaged by the State disagreed. Professor Harry Kennedy, also of the CMH, testified that she was not delusional at the time, but carried out the attack in anger and out of a “sense of entitlement”; she told gardaí she’d needed money.
She had followed another woman that night “but let her go”, something he said indicated that she knew what she was doing in selecting her victim.
The six men and six women of the jury were told that the State had to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Kenna had carried out the attack.
However, the defence had to prove only on the balance of probabilities that she satisfied the special defence of not guilty by reason of insanity.
Justice Tara Burns sent them out to begin considering their verdict yesterday afternoon. They had spent a total of two hours and 23 minutes deliberating before reaching their unanimous verdict of guilty on both counts. Justice Burns adjourned sentencing until Monday, March 25.