Threat to cut off teenager’s head

A woman who threatened to cut her teenage neighbour’s head off with a makeshift spear has been found not guilty by reason of insanity.

The Dublin woman pleaded not guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to aggravated burglary on April 9, 2012, during which she threatened the girl and her boyfriend.

The girl, who was 16 at the time, told gardaí she was watching television with her boyfriend at 6am when her neighbour came into the apartment carrying a stick with a knife at the end.

She said the woman pointed the knife at them and threatened to chop her head off. The woman moved towards her and held the knife inches from her face before leaving.

The witness said she then heard shouting: “Next time I will put a syringe in your neck and give you Aids.”

Dr Paul O’Connell from the Central Mental Hospital told Giollaíosa Ó Lideadha, defending, that the woman suffered from paranoid delusions at the time leading up the incident.

Psychiatrists for both sides said the woman suffered from paranoid schizophrenia and that a defence of insanity is appropriate.

The jury returned a not guilty by reason of insanity verdict after one hour of deliberation.

Judge Sarah Berkley ordered that the woman remain under the care of the psychiatric unit she is currently with until a bed becomes available for inpatient assessment at the Central Mental Hospital.