Murder accused told doctors paedophile's release from prison caused him to ‘spiral’

A murder accused who suffered serious sexual abuse at the hands of school caretaker Michael Ferry told doctors that the paedophile's release from prison had caused him to "spiral" and become obsessed with protecting people from further attacks, a jury has heard.

Two psychiatrists have told the trial of Derek Mulligan that the native Irish speaker, who admits causing fatal injuries to his 78-year-old grandfather, was suffering from paranoid schizophrenia at the time and fulfils the criteria for a special verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity.

The Central Criminal Court jury has heard that Mr Mulligan described to gardai how he "smacked" a granite stone off his grandfather's head outside his home in the Donegal Gaeltacht before using a cement block to "finish it off".

Patricia McLaughlin SC, along with Fiona Crawford BL, previously told the trial that Ferry was sentenced to 14 years in prison after he was convicted of sexual offending against several boys, including the accused.

Mr Mulligan (39), with an address at Carrickcoyle, Derrybeg, Gweedore, has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to the murder of his grandfather Derek Burns (78) at Carrickcoyle on December 19, 2023.

Giving evidence today, Dr Ronan Mullaney told defence counsel, Michael Bowman SC, with Simon Gillespie BL, that he interviewed the accused in Castlerea Prison on October 9, 2024.

He said Mr Mulligan's psychiatric history goes back to 2008, when the accused first came into contact with mental health services. Over the years, Mr Mulligan, who has a history of substance abuse, has attended mental health services in Sligo, Cork, Letterkenny and St John of God's in Dublin.

The witness said the accused told him he fell victim to a sexual predator when he was between the ages of 10 and 16, resulting in him falling behind in school. He said Mr Mulligan had gone to court when he was 22 years old and the perpetrator got a 14-year jail term in prison.

Dr Mullaney said that when the accused was seen by doctors in 2022, he told them that the predator being released from prison the previous year had caused him to "spiral" and that he became obsessed with protecting people from further abuse.

He said Mr Mulligan was very distressed when the perpetrator was released from prison in 2021 and that he had used a lot of drugs and alcohol around this time. At one point, the accused was smoking up to €50 worth of cannabis daily.

Dr Mullaney said the accused was abused by a different adult when he was 16 years old. He reported it to gardai in 2011 when he was aged 22 but wasn't prepared to go through with the court process because of the harm the first case had caused him, resulting in the second case collapsing.

The witness said the first time schizophrenia was given in the accused's discharge summary was in 2013. Mr Mulligan had also been diagnosed over the years with paranoid schizophrenia, personality disorder and bipolar affective disorder.

He said key indicators of the accused having a psychosis illness included him reporting that voices were always inside his head and that he was able to spot paedophiles by looking at their trousers.

Dr Mullaney said a fortnight before the incident with his grandfather, Mr Mulligan was admitted to a psychiatric unit in Letterkenny for two days and had reported experiencing hallucinations for weeks prior to his committal.

The accused told the psychiatrist he believed he was in purgatory and could see clocks spinning around at crazy speeds. He said Mr Mulligan had reported being increasingly paranoid and occupied with hallucinations in the weeks, days and hours prior to the offence.

The witness said Mr Mulligan told him he had stopped taking his prescribed antipsychotic medication and been commanded by auditory hallucinations to attack his grandad.

Dr Mullaney said the accused was suffering from multiple symptoms of acute schizophrenia at the time of the offence, which included auditory hallucinations, firm but false convictions, prominent disorganisation in his thoughts and behaviour. He said the voices commanding him were not recognised by him as being hallucinations at the time.

Following his committal to the Central Mental Hospital, the witness said Mr Mulligan's symptoms have persisted over many months but had attenuated. He said the accused had been suffering with schizophrenia for many years, that he was acutely psychotic at the time of the offence and hadn't taken any medication for his psychosis.

He said Mr Mulligan was suffering from the mental disorder of paranoid schizophrenia at the time. He said the accused would have been unable to know the wrongfulness of his actions and unable to refrain from committing the act.

Dr Stephen Monks told Ms McLaughlin that the accused told him he had auditory hallucinations for many years from the age of 14 and would hear women's voices mocking him, saying things such as "paedophiles are going to get you" in relation to his past sexual abuse.

The witness said the accused had suffered with persistent hallucinations, thought disorder and marked functional decline over many years.

He said Mr Mulligan had relapsed when he was not compliant with his medication. He said the accused had a long-standing history of auditory hallucinations from his early teens, with voices identifying other people as paedophiles. He said he had multiple relapsing episodes over two decades, which resulted in many psychiatric admissions including long inpatient stays.

He said while drugs and alcohol worsen psychotic episodes, the schizophrenia diagnosis could not be attributed to such.  

The witness said the accused was suffering from a severe mental disorder of paranoid schizophrenia when he killed his grandfather. He said by reason of the mental disorder, he did now know the nature and quality of what he was doing, did not know what he was doing was wrong and was unable to refrain from committing the act.

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Mr Mulligan has also pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity that on December 17, 2023 at Carrickcoyle, he did without lawful excuse damage property, to wit, the windscreen of a Nissan Quashqui belonging to Catherine McDermott, intending to damage such property or being reckless as to whether such property would be damaged.

The defendant has further pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity that on the same occasion he did without lawful excuse make threats to Ms McDermott to kill or cause her serious harm, intending her to believe that these threats be carried out.

In addition, Mr Mulligan has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to two counts of assaulting Breege McFadden and Derek McFadden at Carrickmacafferty, Derrybeg on the same date.

The trial continues tomorrow before Ms Justice Eileen Creedon and a jury of seven men and five women.