Christina Anderson jailed for eight years over fatal stabbing of stranger

Christina Anderson, who had been undergoing a psychotic episode when she stabbed 38-year-old Gareth Kelly to death, had pleaded guilty to manslaughter by reason of diminished responsibility due to a mental disorder

Christina Anderson

A woman who was undergoing a psychotic episode when she stabbed a stranger to death has been given an eight-year prison sentence by a judge at the Central Criminal Court.

Christina Anderson will also be required to work with probation services and engage with psychiatric treatment for four years after she is released or she will face a further three years in custody. 

She has been in the Central Mental Hospital since shortly after the stabbing having been diagnosed with schizo-affective disorder.

Anderson, 41, had never met Gareth Kelly, 38, when she approached him and stabbed him five times while he tried to start his car outside her home in the early morning of February 25, 2020.

She was initially charged with murder and pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. In January this year, more than one month into her trial, the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) accepted a plea of guilty to manslaughter by reason of diminished responsibility due to a mental disorder. 

The State accepted Ms Anderson was experiencing a psychotic episode due to bipolar affective disorder but did not qualify for the full defence of a not guilty by reason of insanity verdict under the Criminal Law (Insanity) Act. 

Cannabis intoxication

The State also accepted that cannabis intoxication "does not feature" in the offence, despite telling the jury during her trial that a central issue was whether Anderson's actions were driven by mental illness or by cannabis intoxication.

Passing sentence on Tuesday, Ms Justice Karen O'Connor said the offence fell into the most serious category but for the fact that Anderson's responsibility was diminished by her mental condition. 

She remarked Anderson committed a "fatal attack of a ferocious nature" on a defenceless man who she did not know as he sat in his car. Anderson then went home but returned a short time later and stabbed Mr Kelly while he lay on the ground.

Anderson's behaviour was "highly dominated by her mental condition", the judge said. She also noted Anderson had no previous convictions and had never come to the adverse attention of gardaí before. But the judge said she also had to mark the seriousness of the offence and the impact it had on Mr Kelly's family.

Michael O'Higgins SC, for Ms Anderson, told a sentencing hearing last month that while his client's actions were horrendous, she was suffering delusions brought on by bipolar-affective disorder. Although she is legally culpable, Mr O'Higgins said her "moral responsibility could and should go to zero given the very acute mental illness under which she was labouring at the time".

At last month's hearing Mr O'Higgins outlined what he said was evidence of the "complete destruction" of his client's rational mind in the weeks and months before the stabbing. 

Paranoid and delusional

There was, he said, evidence she had become paranoid and delusional regarding what she falsely believed to be a criminal conspiracy involving her neighbours, gardaí and senior politicians including former taoiseach, Bertie Ahern. 

Consultant psychiatrist Dr Brenda Wright diagnosed Anderson with bipolar affective disorder and gave the opinion she was suffering from a psychotic episode at the time of the killing. Dr Wright said Anderson falsely believed Mr Kelly was a threat to her and her family and that by stabbing him she was protecting her family.

Mr O'Higgins said the actions of his client were "horrendous" but she was "very mentally ill" and in a "state of paranoia and persecution". She bears some liability, he said, and that is accepted by her plea of guilty to manslaughter.

"In determining the appropriate punishment, the mental element, or lack of mental element as it is in this case, has to be a huge factor in determining any punitive sentence the court is to mete out," counsel said. 

He added: "The absence of a rational mind is a paramount factor in determining moral culpability."

Mr O'Higgins cited legal authorities he said showed there was a distinction between moral and legal responsibility and in some cases involving mental illness "responsibility could be reduced to zero".

Anderson's is one such case, he said.

Her illness is so severe, Mr O'Higgins said, that more than three years after the stabbing Anderson remains in the Central Mental Hospital undergoing treatment. Mr O'Higgins also pointed to recent psychiatric reports which state she is at low risk of reoffending.