The murder trial of a 32-year-old man with schizophrenia has heard that he believed his mother was an imposter when he attacked her at their home in Kilkenny.
Niall Stapleton, admits killing Siobhan Stapleton at Glebe Lodge, Kilfane, Thomastown, on May 25, last year but denies murder, by reason of insanity.
Psychiatrist Dr Steven Monks from the Central Mental Hospital says Niall Stapleton complained to him of difficulties in differentiating between what was real and what was not in the week leading up to his mother’s death.
The defence witness says the 32-year-old felt disorientated and paranoid at a family barbecue the night before the attack and believed his beer had been spiked with LSD.
The jury has already heard the accused was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia but that he did not accept the diagnosis and had a poor history of taking his medication.
He told the psychiatrist that he struck his mother repeatedly as she came out of the garage on the Friday afternoon.
He said he believed she was a doppelganger who would disintegrate if he hit her.
He said he saw the handle of a spade and felt he should take matters into his own hands.