Man accused of murdering sister 'suffered from mental disorder'

A 21-year-old Clare man accused of murdering his 17 year-old sister was suffering from a mental disorder at the time of her killing, a jury in the Central Criminal Court was told today.

Defence witness Dr Cleo Van Velson, a consultant psychiatrist in forensic psychotherapy, came from the UK to give evidence in the trial of Patrick O'Dwyer, of Shrohill, Ennistymon, Co Clare who has pleaded not guilty to murdering his sister Marguerite at the family home on November 29th 2004.

Dr Van Velsen told defence counsel, Mr Patrick Gageby SC, that she believed the accused had been suffering from depersonalisation disorder and that this mental state pre-dated the killing.

She said symptoms which the accused had included: "detachment or estrangement from oneself- like being an automaton or being in a movie, sensory anaesthesia, lack of effective response, lack of emotional response".

She also associated other symptoms the accused experienced as evidence of a mental disorder. These included his distorted perception of snooker tables as being unusually large and the balls too small; or his feet being so big he would not be able to walk down cinema aisles.

She said she believed Mr O’Dwyer’s sense of "always being an external observer of himself" and inability to connect with those around him led him to self-medicate with alcohol, which made the condition worse.

She felt it was significant the accused was nicknamed "Psycho Pa" by his friends as she believed peer groups as being very good at assessing their friends.

She sighted two incidences when the accused "exploded" into acts of violence in the year of the killing.

On one occasion, he became aggressive with his father who confronted him for his drunken behaviour at a family wedding.

On another occasion, he hit a woman and bit her fingers when she rejected his advances while he was acutely drunk.

She said it was significant the accused tried to hang himself after the second incident and said it was unfortunate he had not been assessed in more depth when he visited a psychologist.

She said she believed the accused intended to kill himself but that "tragically" his sister was there and the "murderous strain of mind" he felt towards himself was "misdirected" towards Marguerite.

“I think tragically for Marguerite, she was there. And he had to manage those feelings one-way or the other. He exploded,” she said.

And she added: “He quite literally put them in her. There was a sense of truly getting rid of something.”

She told the court: “I think if he’d been alone, he might have killed himself.”

She also said she believed the accused called a sexual chat line after the killing in an attempt to forge contact with a woman for some sort of contact.

“I don’t think it was overtly sexual,” she said.

Dr Van Velsen said the disorder could be linked to his premature birth. “Early trauma can effect development from a neurobiological point of view,” she explained.

Under cross-examination by prosecuting counsel, Mr John Edwards SC, Dr Van Velsen said she believed he wrote "Butcher Boy" on his bedroom wall as an attempt to convey how he saw himself, whether this is because he is himself a butcher, or because he identified with the story of the film.

She acknowledged the method of the killing was similar to that of the film.

She denied the accused was an alcoholic and maintained her position that his "lonely gulping of alcohol" was an attempt to "manage his very difficult internal state".

Asked what she thought about a report by prosecution witness Dr Harry Kennedy, director of the Central Mental Hospital, Dr Van Velsen said: “I don’t think this is a very complete picture.”

Another consultant forensic psychiatrist from the Central Mental Hospital, Dr Paul O’Connell told the court he agreed with the Dr Van Velsen’s diagnosis after reading her report.

“I think that depersonalisation disorder nearly entirely captures the symptoms,” he said.

The trial before Mr Justice Paul Carney and a jury of six women and six men continues tomorrow.