'Text book' paranoid schizophrenic found not guilty of murder

A man with "text book" paranoid schizophrenia has been found not guilty of killing his uncle in a "frenzied" axe attack by reason of insanity at the Central Criminal Court.

The jury of six men and six women took just under three hours to find Henry McLaren (aged 34) of Edenmore Drive, Raheny not guilty of murdering his uncle, Thomas Demspey at Edenmore Drive on February 10, 2007.

Mr Dempsey died from massive head injuries after being hit more than twenty times with an axe.

The damage to his head was so severe that a large piece of his skull was missing, along with most of his left ear and half his brain.

Emergency services personnel giving evidence during the three day trial described a "horrific" scene with the deceased's blood and brain spattered across the walls.

The jury heard from three consultant psychiatrists who all agreed that Mr McLaren was suffering from severe delusions at the time of the killing and his actions were a direct result of his illness.

Dr Paul O'Connell told Mr Erwin Mil Arden SC, defending, Mr McLaren had a family history of schizophrenia with his uncle, the deceased, receiving treatment for the illness many years before.

He said that Mr McLaren still held some of the delusions that had been material to his attacking his uncle and had only partially responded to treatment.

At the time of the killing, Mr McLaren thought that Jimi Hendrix had told him his uncle was the devil. He thought that his uncle wanted to die and boxer Jack Dempsey had been speaking through his uncle's mouth and had wanted to kill him.

Dr Damian James Mohan told Mr Mil Arden that Mr McLaren's parents had obtained a barring order against him around Christmas 2006. At 4.45am on the morning of the killing, gardaí were called to his parent's house because Mr McLaren wanted to kill his father, who he thought was a paedophile.

During the trial the jury heard that at around 3pm on February 10, 2007, neighbours heard noises coming from Mr Dempsey's house, where Mr McLaren was living.

Ms Elaine Dillon said she was coming back from a friend's house when she heard screaming. "First it was like a bird squawking then I looked around and I thought it was kids."

When she had located the noises she called on a neighbour to ask them to call gardaí. The noises where continuing. "I could hear screaming first then I could hear noises that sounded like a whipping noise."

Mr McLaren came to the door of the house covered in blood. Behind him, through the partly opened door she could see two feet, so she asked him if his uncle was all right.

He replied "He's in Hell. He's in fucking Hell. He's burning in Hell."

The emergency services were called but Mr McLaren would not let them into the house. He kept asking for a black woman saying "I want black people, I need black people."

The jury heard that he thought God was black and the Devil was a white man. He thought white men were members of Sinn Féin, who he thought had massacred all the American Indians in the 19th century and smelt of faecal matter.

The gardaí were called and they eventually forced there way into the house. Mr Dempsey was found in the hall, dead. Mr McLaren ran up the stairs and was eventually arrested by armed gardaí.

Mr McLaren refused to tell gardaí his real name and insisted he should be called 'Red', a reference to the American Indians. In interviews he told gardaí Jimi Hendrix had told him to kill his uncle. "He said he was the devil. I am a man and Jimi is a woman. We are a couple."

He was insistent that his uncle was evil.

"Tommy used to have his hands on Ireland. He was the devil. He put briquettes on the fire. The game shouldn't be played like that. It's sick." He said he had used the axe, which he referred to as a tomahawk, because of what Sinn Féin did to the Indians. He told gardaí he killed his uncle "the Indian way".

Mr McLaren also believed that he was a world champion golfer and his father was hindering his career. He told psychiatrists that the Central Mental Hospital was going to build him a golf course.

Dr Brian McCaffrey said that Mr McLaren had committed the killing in a kind of fantasy. "He wasn't aware of the screaming or shouting. He was in a dream world away on his own, totally away from reality."

He said that in over 30 years examining people accused of murder he had seen several people with paranoid schizophrenia and their attacks were "more than gruesome".

"I have seen this before with someone who had schizophrenia, but I have never seen it before in someone who didn't have schizophrenia."

Dr Mohan told Mr Justice Barry White that, if someone had tried to intervene in the moments before the attack took place, there would likely have been two fatalities rather than one.

Mr Justice Barry White thanked the jury for their careful attention and excused them from further jury service for life. He ordered that Mr McLaren be committed to the Central Mental Hospital in Dundrum.