'No evidence' Stephen Silver had mental health relapse when he killed Garda Horkan, trial told

Prof. Kennedy said that when Mr Silver was taken to Castlerea Prison, he thought he was “in a special room where he would metamorphose into something else”.

Professor Harry Kennedy said that Stephen Silver (pictured) thought that if he breathed in a certain way, he would grow muscles. File picture: Michael McCormack/PA

Stephen Silver, who is charged with murdering Garda Colm Horkan by shooting the garda dead with his own gun, is “an unreliable historian” concerning his mental health difficulties, a consultant psychiatrist has told the Central Criminal Court.

“One can’t be confident of what he says,” Professor Harry Kennedy told the jury in the trial of Mr Silver (46), of Aughavard, Foxford, Co. Mayo, saying that he found “no positive evidence” that Mr Silver had suffered a relapse of bipolar affective disorder at the time he shot dead Gda Horkan.