Son, 35, acquitted of father’s murder

A 35-year-old Mayo man has been acquitted of murdering his father two years ago.

John Biggins, of Ballynalty, Cross, Claremorris, had pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to murdering Thomas Biggins, aged 70, at that address on May 6, 2012.

The Central Criminal Court heard Mr Biggins was diagnosed with severe schizophrenia and was on disability allowance.

The jury returned a unanimous verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity after 27 minutes of deliberation following the two-day trial.

Bernard Condon, prosecuting, asked the court for an order to commit Mr Biggins to the Central Mental Hospital to appear before the court again on Wednesday. Mr Condon said Mr Biggins’ treating psychiatrist would be in court on that date.

The court was told that the 100-acre farmer was shot twice with his own legally held shotgun.

Paramedics tried to resuscitate him at the scene but he was later pronounced dead at Galway University Hospital at 3.35pm.

The court heard Marie Cassidy, the State pathologist, carried out an autopsy and said the cause of death was a shotgun wound to the left side of the chest. Prof Cassidy said a shotgun wound to the right hand was a contributing factor.

Dr Paul O’Connell of the Central Mental Hospital told the court that a mental state examination showed Mr Biggins had a range of psychotic symptoms and a mild intellectual disability.

He told John Jordan, defending, it was his opinion that Mr Biggins was mentally ill at the material time and his judgment was grossly impaired. He said Mr Biggins was emotionally disconnected from the enormity of his actions.

Dr O’Connell said Mr Biggins had a psychotic urge to shoot his father in order to go to prison.

He said it was his opinion that Mr Biggins fulfilled two out of the three criteria to qualify under the Mental Insanity Act. The judge told the court Mr Biggins only needed to score one of the three criteria.

Dr O’Connell agreed with Mr Jordan that Mr Biggins had paranoid persecution delusions about his father being abusive to him, which would be very hurtful to his family.

The jury had been told the burden rested on the accused to prove he was insane at the time of the killing