Man diagnosed with schizophrenia 12 years after murdering infant son has conviction quashed
A man found guilty of murdering his infant son 17 years ago has had his conviction quashed on grounds that his recent diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia was new evidence, rendering his conviction unsafe.
Yusuf Ali Abdi, with a last address at The Elms, College Road, Clane, Co Kildare, stood trial in 2003 for the murder of his son, Nathan Baraka Andrew Ali, in an apartment at that address on April 17, 2001.
Abdi’s defence at trial was that he was insane and a number of medical experts were called by the defence to support that view. He claimed he was a zombie and that voices told him to hit the child, so he struck his son against a wall several times, by swinging the child by the legs.
The Prosecution also called a number of medical witnesses to say he was not psychotic. Crucially, the prosecution called Dr Damien Mohan of the Central Mental Hospital who said Abdi was not suffering from psychosis.
Abdi was found guilty of murdering his son by a 10-2 majority jury verdict and given the mandatory life sentence by Mr Justice Paul Carney on May 28, 2003.
The Court of Appeal quashed Abdi’s conviction today on the basis that a 2013 diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia, by another psychiatrist based at the Central Mental Hospital, was new evidence.
Giving judgment in the three-judge court, Mr Justice John Edwards said the case was “wholly exceptional” given the change in his diagnosis by doctors treating him at the only dedicated forensic psychiatric facility - the Central Mental Hospital - in the State.
Abdi was remanded in custody to appear before the Central Criminal Court on Monday next for the purpose of a retrial.
Counsel for Abdi, Barry White SC, instructed by MacGuill and Company Solicitors, said his client was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia in 2013. In light of the diagnosis, it was submitted that Dr Mohan’s diagnosis in 2003, though bona fide, was “erroneous” and amounted to a new or newly discovered fact.
