A man who stabbed his “friendly and soft-hearted” father 18 times during a psychotic episode has been found not guilty of murder by reason of insanity by a jury at the Central Criminal Court.
Ross O’Rourke (31), with a previous address in Tullow, Co Carlow, had pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to murdering Stefan Nivelle Posschier (65) at his father’s home in Kinnegad, Co Westmeath, between October 24th and 25th, 2022.
The jury of five men and seven women took 29 minutes on Monday to return their unanimous verdict, having been told all the evidence pointed in the same direction.
Following the verdict, Mr Justice Paul McDermott exempted the jury from further service for five years.
RM Block
He described the trial as “extremely difficult, especially for those who have lost a loved one”. The judge expressed sympathy for Mr Posschier’s family who, he said, have “suffered a tremendous loss”.
The trial heard how Mr O’Rourke developed a delusion his father was mixed up with criminals and the IRA and posed a threat to his life.
He also came to believe his father had given him coded messages saying he wished to die.
Mr O’Rourke stabbed his father to death then drove to a hospital, where he went to his grandmother’s bedside and told her he had killed her son.
Psychiatrists called by the prosecution and defence agreed Mr O’Rourke was suffering from a schizophrenic mental disorder at the time of the killing and met the criteria for the special verdict under the Criminal Law (Insanity) Act 2006.
Dr Ronan Mullaney told Michael Bowman SC, defending, how in the two years since Mr O’Rourke has been treated at the Central Mental Hospital there had been only a partial improvement in his symptoms.
He said it took eight months to get the defendant to a position where staff were satisfied to remove him from the hospital’s high-security unit.
Dr Anthony Kearns told Shane Costelloe SC, for the Director of Public Prosecutions, how Mr O’Rourke’s thought processes were “broken up” and he developed a persecutory belief his life was in danger.
“His sincere belief was that he was using the knife to save his life; that was his delusional belief,” Dr Kearns said.
He said the best way forward for Mr O’Rourke was ongoing treatment in hospital.
In his closing speech to the jury, Mr Bowman had described Mr Posschier as a man “against whom not a bad word was ever said”.
Witnesses described Mr Posschier as placid, friendly, soft-hearted and as having a heart of gold, the jury heard.
The son’s suggestion he had become involved in criminality or the IRA “simply wasn’t true” and was the “product of a deluded mind”, Mr Bowman said.
When Mr O’Rourke had nowhere else to go, having been forcibly detained at the Cloverhill prison due to mental illness, his father showed his “heart of gold” by agreeing to take him in, Mr Bowman said.
Five days before he was killed, Mr Posschier told his daughter how Mr O’Rourke was “sick in the head” and in need of help.
Mr Costelloe told the jury how the evidence proved Mr O’Rourke intended to kill his father when he stabbed him 18 times and severed his jugular vein. The issue, he said, was whether the special verdict is available to him.
Mr Costelloe said the evidence went “all only one way”, given that both psychiatrists agreed Mr O’Rourke was insane at the time and met the criteria for the special verdict.
“I ask you to go in, do your duty and come back with the appropriate verdict,” he said.
