Mother cleared of daughter's murder sent to Central Mental Hospital

A psychiatrist who drowned her teenage daughter in the bath to save her from a hopeless life of anorexia has been found not guilty of murder by reason of insanity.

Lynn Gibbs, 47, who killed her daughter Ciara, 16, at their home in Killure, Gowran in Co Killkenny between November 25 and 26, 2006, will remain in treatment at the Central Mental Hospital in Dundrum until an order is made by the state for her release.

The jury of nine women and three men took 21 minutes to return the verdict in the Central Criminal Court at Dublin.

Based on evidence from consultant psychiatrists given during the trial Mr Justice Paul Carney warned them before they retired, if they returned any other verdict than not guilty by insanity, they would effectively be saying “all in psychiatry was bunkum”.

Consultant psychiatrists for the defence and prosecution agreed Mrs Gibbs actually thought by killing Ciara she was helping her daughter escape a hopeless life ruled by anorexia and said she was absolutely powerless to stop herself carrying out the act.

Courtroom one was silent as the verdict was read but when Mr Justice Carney left the court family and friends, including a doctor and psychiatrist who had tried to help Mrs Gibbs before the killing, went crying to hug her.

Mrs Gibbs who had been blank faced and unemotional during the trial was smiling as her tearful husband Gerard also hugged her and shook hands with Gardaí and lawyers.

During the trial the doctor’s harrowing family history was laid bare including her mother Iris Hutchinson’s depression and suicide at the age of 49 by drinking weed killer, Mrs Gibbs own suicide attempt by overdose at the age of 20 and her own obsession with her weight three years before that.

The court heard from Mrs Gibbs younger sister Kathleen Deely yesterday who said she noticed a difference in her sister from October 2006. She had lost weight, was not sleeping and was extremely pre-occupied and worried about Ciara’s weight loss that had also shocked her.

“I was quite shocked she had lost an awful lot of weight and looked gaunt and drawn. I definitely thought she had an eating disorder.”

Her stepmother Anna Hutchinson said the family were so concerned they had planned to meet on November 26, the day Mr Gibbs found his daughter dead and wife unconscious from an overdose and bleeding after she cut herself with a meat-cleaver.

“She was getting thinner by the day and I felt I could see she had less energy as the days went by, she seemed always under pressure,” Mrs Hutchinson said.

She knew Mrs Gibbs mother Iris and knew she killed herself but “it was never discussed".

The family lunch on the 26th to discuss Mrs Gibbs and Ciara’s problems never happened and Mr Gibbs returned home with the couple’s son Gearoid from staying at his mother’s house in Tipperary that morning to find his daughter drowned wet body lying in the en-suite bathroom.

His wife was lying slumped near the chest of drawers in the bedroom semi-conscious.

Friend Dr Marese Cheasty was the last person to see them alive on the night of the 25th.

She told the court her friend had become absolutely depressed and pre-occupied with Ciara.

Mrs Gibbs had been prescribed three different anti-depressants since September that year but none of them agreed with her and she stopped taking all of them after a week or so, she told the court.

While she did not believe her friend met the criteria to become an involuntary inpatient she told the court she had planned to call Mr Gibbs the following day to discuss getting his wife into hospital.

“If I ever felt she was in danger I would have stayed the night myself or asked Gerard to come home,” she said.

Mrs Gibbs told her that night she was worried about finances because she did not think she would work again and said she thought about suicide from time to time but she would never do it.

“She talked about the terrible prognosis for anorexia and how she felt Ciara would never have a career or family because of the anorexia.”

She told the court she believed her friend was telling the truth when she said, that night, she would not harm herself.

Dr Deidre Dowdall, also a friend, said Mrs Gibbs confided in her and being a psychiatrist Mrs Gibbs felt guilty she had not seen the signs in Ciara.

She tried to help her friend who they holidayed with in summertime but Mrs Gibbs seemed reluctant to keep up their meetings and was always busy with something for Ciara.

They had not holidayed together in the summer of 2006. Ciara was on an exchange to France that she said seemed to have sparked her eating disorder.

The Franch family was very formal especially at mealtime and Ciara did not like it so absented herself from meals.

It was then Mrs Gibbs told her friend, her daughter discovered she could go without food.

Dr Dowdall visited Mrs Gibbs in hospital after the killing saying her eyes were wild, she was making involuntary movements and she appeared deranged.

Consultant Psychiatrist and friend Dr Maura Horgan treated Mrs Gibbs in St Lukes Hospital after the killing.

Her friend had confided in her months earlier about Ciara’s problem, the normally intensely private woman breaking down into tears, an unusual situation, Dr Hogan said.

She said the kind-hearted caring psychiatrist was extremely unwell.

A report read to the court from consultant psychiatrist Dr James Lucey from St Vincent’s Hospital, where Mrs Gibbs was transferred to after St Lukes’s, said Mrs Gibbs suffered from a major mental health disorder.

“I have no doubt that her actions were carried out in the context of a major psychotic disorder,” his report said.

Mr Brendan Grehan SC for the DPP declined to make a closing speech in the case, Mr Patrick Gageby SC for Mrs Gibbs, telling the jury the case had been put before them as the law required, but also to show Mrs Gibbs was not being done any favours because of the origin of her profession.

Lynn Gibbs had an enviable reputation, enviable career, enviable family and enviable kind and caring friends, he said.

“All of these things ladies and gentlemen point of course to the extremely irrational act which she committed arising out of her illness.”

After the verdict Professor Harry Kennedy, Director of the Central Mental Hospital who has been treating her for the past 10 months, told the court the best place for Mrs Gibbs was in a secure designated facility where she will receive ongoing treatment.

Mr Justice Carney made the order for her to remain in the Central Mental Hospital under Professor Kennedy’s care until a further order was made under section 13 of the Criminal Law (Insanity) Act 2006 for her to be released.