Accused tells Garda Horkan murder trial he believed SAS and MI6 were trying 'to get rid of me'

Stephen Silver recalled that he had considered signing himself into respite one day before Garda Colm Horkan was shot

Stephen Silver (pictured) said he had a “longstanding psychiatric history” having been admitted to psychiatric units 17 times since he was 19 or 20 years old. File picture

The man accused of murdering Detective Garda Colm Horkan has told his trial that he is diagnosed with two mental disorders, had stopped taking his medication and was living in a shed with no running water in the weeks before the shooting that resulted in the detective’s death.

Stephen Silver took the stand following the close of the prosecution case and told his own counsel, Roisin Lacey SC, that he had considered signing himself in for respite the day before the shooting but on the day of the shooting was feeling “hyper” and “elated” and "it had gone too far". He said he started “thinking strange things”, such as that a woman he had been seeing was an MI6 agent and that the SAS had planted a bomb under his van.