Son appeals his acquittal for mother’s murder

A Roscommon man acquitted of murdering his mother by reason of insanity last year has brought an appeal against his acquittal.

Paul Henry, aged 29, had pleaded not guilty to Ann Henry’s murder at The Spinney, Abbeystown, Roscommon, in September 2011. A jury acquitted him at a Castlebar sitting of the Central Criminal Court and he was sent to the Central Mental Hospital on May 7, 2014.

Henry is seeking a retrial so he can plead and be convicted of manslaughter by reason of diminished responsibility, thereby incurring a determinative sentence rather than being under an indefinite regime at the Central Mental Hospital possibly for the rest of his life.