Galway man found guilty but insane of mother's murder

A Galway man was today found guilty but insane of the murder of his mother nearly four years ago at the Central Criminal Court.

43-year-old Sean Fahy of Ballindooley, Headford Road, Galway yesterday pleaded guilty but insane to the murder of his elderly mother, Mrs Margaret Fahy at her home in Ballindooley, on September 11, 2001.

The jury of five men and seven women took just 10 minutes to reach their unanimous verdict of guilty but insane. Mr Justice Paul Carney thanked the jury for their service before he directed the father-of-five to be detained at the Central Mental Hospital.

Inspector Tony O’Donnell, investigating officer, told the court that Mr Fahy had been released from St Brigid’s psychiatric hospital just five weeks before the tragic death of his murder.

Prosecuting counsel, Brendan Nix told the court that Mr Fahy’s wife had been contacted by a medical doctor the day before his release from hospital warning her to stay away from him. "She was told by a doctor that she should put some distance between herself and himself as it wasn’t uncommon for people like Sean to kill their wives," Mr Nix said.

Since 17 years of age, Insp. O’Donnell said, Mr Fahy showed symptoms of paranoia.

On the evening of September 10, 2001, Insp. O’Donnell told the court the last people to see Mrs Margaret Fahy alive were her niece, Yvonne and her son, Michael Fahy who had been left the farm when his father died in 1996.

The next morning at 10.15am, Michael Fahy arrived at this mother’s house where he found his mother lying on the ground with his brother asleep on the couch. "There was blood on the walls, floor and ceiling", Insp. O’Donnell said.

After Michael Fahy ran for help to the nearby business of his other brother, Stephen, the ambulance and gardaí were called to the house.

Ambulance crew, Insp. O’Donnell said, noticed two bottles of tablets on the ground beside Mr Fahy.

"It was the belief of gardaí at the time that Sean Fahy had attempted to take an overdose, there was fear for the life of Sean Fahy at that time", Insp. O’Donnell said.

The State Pathologist, Dr Marie Cassidy, Insp. O’Donnell said, visited the scene and she "observed the violence that was very evident in the house".

The initial assault, Dr Cassidy observed, began in the bedroom and continued throughout the house. The assault, Insp. O’Donnell said "culminated at the fridge in the kitchen". The elderly woman had "extensive head injuries".

"A penetrating wound contained a walking stick that was found protruding from her neck," the Inspector said.

"Her back was broken in the lumber area and there was an injury to her scalp consistent with a broken walking stick being driven into the scalp at least six times," Insp. O’Donnell said.

The tip of the elderly woman’s finger had been severed, the Insp told the jury which was "consistent with a stamping of a foot onto a hand". The 78-year-old grandmother had a number of defensive wounds.

Dr Cassidy concluded death occurred "due to blood loss" combined with breathing difficulties caused from crush injuries to her chest.

Insp. O’Donnell said this case was "the worst case" he had ever witnessed in his 27 years as a garda.

"There was much blood on the floor, the walls and the radiators, a terrible violence had to be inflicted to cause this," Insp. O’Donnell told the jury.

The court heard the 43-year-old had been barred from the family home as a result of his wife obtaining a barring order from the court. On the night before the fatal incident, Insp. O’Donnell said, Sean Fahy had been drinking heavily in Oranmore and Clarinbridge, Galway.

"Sean Fahy was on prescribed medication for a number of years but he consistently did not take this medication. When he drank he suffered sudden outbursts of violence," Insp. O’Donnell said.

Under cross-examination by defence barrister, Mr Martin Giblin, Insp. O’Donnell agreed it was clear the assault on Mrs Fahy was a "frenzied attack".

Insp. O’Donnell also said under cross-examination by Mr Giblin SC, that the accused man told gardaí: "I’m sorry for the trouble I have caused, I loved that woman."

Defence counsel, Mr Giblin called Dr Brian McCaffery, forensic physiatrist to give evidence regarding Mr Fahy’s condition.

Dr McCaffrey told the court that Mr Fahy’s medical notes before 1993 are lost and that he could only go on the word of Mr Fahy.

"Sean Fahy said at the age of 17, he began to withdraw mixing from people and spent several months inside without going out," Dr McCaffrey said.

The physiatrist said Mr Fahy had thoughts that "people were going to kill him and he thought the IRA were after him". At the age of 23, Mr Fahy married his wife Maura and they have five children ranging from aged 10 to 20, Dr McCaffrey said.

After 10 years of marriage, the physiatrist said, Mr Fahy had delusions his wife was having an affair and "no one could convince him to the contrary".

Dr McCaffrey said the problem with Mr Fahy over the years was that he "never considered himself to be mentally ill and had a reluctance in taking his medication". Mr Fahy, the physiatrist said, "never trusted any of the physiatrist’s who treated him as he thought they were out to poison him".

On July 23, 2001, Dr McCaffrey told the jury, Mr Fahy was committed to St Brigids psychiatric hospital in Ballinasloe, Galway and was discharged on August 9, 2001, five weeks before his mother’s death. Mr Fahy returned to his mother’s home after he was discharged from hospital.

"While there (St Brigid’s), he was convinced people were trying to poison him and he believed his cigarettes were being poisoned too," Dr McCaffrey said.

Mr Fahy told the physiatrist he travelled into Galway to purchase cigarettes from a machine because he could not trust the local shopkeepers, who Mr Fahy believed sold poisoned cigarettes.

Dr McCaffrey said Mr Fahy suffered from "extensive paranoid" ideas including the belief that his mother was trying to poison him. "He wouldn’t take dinner from her and he challenged her about this," the physiatrist said.

In the weeks leading up to her death, Dr McCaffrey said, Mr Fahy "continued to ash his mother about the poisoning and she continued to deny it". "These thoughts were unfounded but they were real to him," the physiatrist told the court.

Dr McCaffrey told the jury Mr Fahy described the event of his mother’s death to him.

Mr Fahy, the physiatrist said, told him when he arrived back home from a night’s drinking at 1.30am on September 11, 2001, he confronted his elderly mother about the poisoning.

"He accused his mother of trying to poison him and he attacked her. He struck her with her own walking stick," the physiatrist told the court.

After assaulting his mother, Dr McCaffrey said, "he sat down calmly". "There was complete switch off of emotions, then he went off to sleep and he slept right through to the next morning," Dr McCaffrey said.

When he saw his mother the next morning lying in blood, he "then felt that he should kill himself", the psychiatrist said.

"He took an overdose of available medication but he was saved," Mr Giblin SC said.

The motive for death of his mother, Dr McCaffrey said was "driven by a delusion that his mother was evil and he wanted to get the evil out of the house", so he killed her.

Dr McCaffrey said there was "no doubt at all that Sean Fahy was suffering from a major mental illness, paranoid schizophrenia that wasn’t treated".

"He was so seriously ill that nothing would have stopped him killing his mother," Dr McCaffrey said.

"He felt he was doing the right thing to get rid of the evil," the physiatrist said. "His reason for killing was not one of a reasonable man. The death of his mother was directly as a result of a disease of the mind, paranoid schizophrenia," Dr McCaffrey told the jury.

Dr Mary Maguire, consultant physiatrist at Roscommon hospital was called by the State who said she believed Mr Fahy’s symptoms were "consistent with paranoid schizophrenia".

"He hadn’t eaten at home for a number of years as he believed his family were trying to poison him. He believed satellites were controlling him and TV presenters were telling him what to do", Dr Maguire said.