Judge complains of antiquated law
The trial judge in a case of a Louth man charged with murdering his infant nephew today complained that the law on insanity in Ireland is rooted in the 1800s and that the legislature has been slow to change it.
In his charge to the jury in the trial of David Brennan, accused of murdering 17-month-old Jack Everitt Brennan, Mr Justice Carney said Ireland's insanity laws have never been reformed in the entire history of the state. The issues in this case "may provoke a debate in the Dail" or on Questions and Answers, and inevitably a minister responds and "says a piece of legislation is on the way, But, he said, "it never comes and "we're back to the 1880s" and to the era of Queen Victoria.
Mr Justice Carney told the jury that there were two verdicts open to them: guilty of murder or guilty but insane. As a matter of law, the defence of insanity rests on three propositions, two dating back to 1843 and a third from 1981. These are that, at the time of the killing, the accused did not
know the nature and quality of the act, by reason of mental disorder; if an accused, by reason of mental disorder, did not know the act was wrong or, whether or not, by reason of mental disorder, he was prevented from exercising his free will.
He said the state has accepted that two of the three tests have been satisfied. Mr Justice Carney told the jury that although a guilty but insane verdict is an acquittal in law, such an acquittal does not mean that a convicted person walks free. The provisions of the Criminal Lunatics Act
require that the person be detained in the Central Mental Hospital at the pleasure of the Government. But, he said, "because of Queen Victoria you will record it on your issue paper as guilty but insane."
David Brennan, aged 20, pleaded not guilty to the murder of Jack Everitt Brennan at or near, Marsh Road Drogheda on February 29 or March 2, 2000.
In his closing speech, defence counsel Sean Moylan SC, described the case as a tragedy. Baby Jack was a beautiful blue-eyed, blonde-haired bonny child that was well loved by his mother, Barbara, by the Everitt family and by his Uncle David.
It is hard to think of anything more tragic than a baby strangled and thrown over a bridge in such appalling circumstances, Mr Moylan said. It was a tragedy that could have been averted if David Brennan had been admitted to St Brigid's Psychiatric Hospital in Ardee on the day of the killing, he
added.
He asked the jury to imagine the accused's mother Patricia's relief as she and her sister drove David to the hospital, "believing that David was going to be taken and cared for in that hospital". Her sister, Adeline Curran, herself a psychiatric nurse, "fought back with the doctor and said 'this is
wrong' and the doctor refused" he said.
He asked the jury to consider the medical evidence of those who have treated David Brennan, who "having known him and treated him" are of the opinion that he was mad at the time of the killing.
"Baby Jack's pain is at an end" and the hopes his family had for him are also at an end. "But the pain for his family, and for the Everitt family will continue for a long, long time," he said. Mr Moylan told the jury that there was only one verdict they should consider: guilty but insane.
In his summing up, prosecuting counsel Michael Durack SC, told the jury that in Ireland, it is not practice to commit someone to a mental institution against their will, unless they were a danger to themselves or others. There were no indications that the child was in danger. He said if they believed that the accused was "probably" insane, they should record a verdict of
guilty but insane.
Earlier, a state psychiatrist told the court that David Brennan had confessed to killing the child to relieve his sister - the child's mother - of a bleak future.
Dr Charles Smith, medical director of the Central Mental Hospital, said the accused would have been aware of what he was doing, as the killing required some degree of planning. But he doubted that if he knew what he was doing was wrong. He described Mr Brennan's response to the killing as abnormal and at one stage, asked the doctors how long they were "holding on to him".
Dr Smith saw the accused on March 3, two days after his arrest. He said he diagnosed Mr Brennan as suffering from paranoid schizophrenia. He had serious doubts if the accused was capable of resisting the impulse to carry out the killing. It was beyond him at the time "to pull back from what he
was doing and break the chain of events," he added.
Dr Smith said Mr Brennan was slow to respond to treatment in Dundrum and at one stage, had made a crude attempt to escape. "While he accepted responsibility for what he did, he is also saying that it did not happen to a normal David, it happened to a very abnormal David," the witness told the court.
Mr Justice Carney continues his charge to the jury tomorrow.
