'Learned impunity' - How years of psychiatric illness led to the shooting dead of Garda Horkan

Stephen Silver had fired one shot for each of his involuntary admissions to psychiatric hospitals over the past 26 years

The court heard some of Stephen Silver’s involuntary admissions to hospital involved threats and aggression towards gardaí and on occasion violence towards hospital staff. File picture: Colin Keegan, Collins Dublin

Stephen Silver had a “seething resentment” toward gardaí and when opportunity presented itself he grabbed it, literally, with both hands, shooting Garda Colm Horkan 11 times with his own gun as the officer lay helpless on the ground.

Silver had fired one shot for each of his involuntary admissions to psychiatric hospitals over the past 26 years.