A mum-of-three who stabbed a man to death outside her home during a psychotic episode has appealed the severity of her sentence.
Christina Anderson was sentenced earlier this year to eleven years in prison with the final three suspended for four years.
Anderson could serve those three years in prison if she does not comply with conditions set down by the probation services and with all medication and therapy recommendations made by her treatment team.
Anderson (41) of Brownsbarn Wood, Kingswood, Dublin 22 had never met father-of-seven 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 25th 2020.
He had parked his car overnight in a space that belonged to the Anderson household and this was said during the trial to have been an aggravation for Ms Anderson.
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.
Psychotic episode
The State accepted that 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.
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.
At the Court of Appeal, Ms Anderson's counsel Michael O'Higgins SC said that the sentencing judge, Ms Justice Karen O'Connor, did not correctly assess the level of his client's moral culpability before calculating the sentence.
He said that a previous decision by the Court of Appeal had stated that where diminished responsibility arises as a defence, moral culpability can be "extinguished altogether". In Ms Anderson's case, counsel said "moral culpability is at the lowest possible point".
He drew the court's attention to a report written by consultant psychiatrist Dr Brenda Wright who said that Ms Anderson was "highly dominated by her mental condition" which the psychiatrist said was "so severe that she was experiencing delusions into which she had no insight."
Ms Anderson had a "psychotic moral justification" for her actions because, Dr Wright said, "she delusionally believed" that her life and the lives of her children were in danger and that she could protect them by killing Mr Kelly.
The evidence of Ms Anderson's family members, friends, neighbours and others who interacted with her in the weeks and months before the killing, Mr O'Higgins said, showed the "slow, systemic and utter coming apart of a person's mind".
Mental disorder
Counsel submitted that a person could not have a more severe mental disorder than that which afflicted Ms Anderson and the "unchallenged evidence was that she had no insight into why those actions were being performed."
Mr O'Higgins said he does not object to Ms Justice O'Connor setting a 20-year headline sentence but said that after taking into consideration Ms Anderson's mental disorder and other mitigating factors, he said she should have deducted further from the headline.
Paul Greene SC, for the DPP, said this is not a case where moral culpability is extinguished. He said that there was evidence of "ongoing aggravation" from Ms Anderson about the continued use of the parking space and he reminded the court that Ms Anderson, having stabbed Mr Kelly, walked away and then came back and stabbed him again.
He said that the sentencing judge had given a "very significant discount" from the headline of 20 years to twelve years for diminished responsibility and further reduced the sentence after taking into consideration mitigating factors such as her good work record, family life and lack of previous convictions.
Mr Greene also submitted that the sentencing judge was entitled to impose a lengthy suspended sentence at the end of Anderson's term in custody where there is no "environment to police a person with a history of mental illness". He said the four-year supervision order is there for the protection of the public.
Should the court decide to reduce the sentence, her lawyer David Perry BL asked the judges to consider that Ms Anderson was transferred from the Central Mental Hospital to the Dochas women's prison in June of this year.
She is an enhanced prisoner and is seen by a psychiatrist once a month, he said. Her psychotic medication dose has been reduced, she is taking cooking, pottery and art classes and is due to begin a certificate in horticulture, counsel said.
