Long Read: Jury hears of fears for family's safety years before Louth murders

As the trial of Robert O'Connor progressed, it became clear to the jury that the defendant's family had worried for their own safety for many years.

Over a decade before Robert took the lives of his parents and younger special needs brother, his father Mark had expressed to a social worker how he had "serious concerns" for his family's safety due to his son's psychotic episodes.

Mark feared that his family "could be killed" by his eldest son Robert in the future. Medical notes from 2014 indicated that himself and his wife Louise were very concerned for their own safety at their home in Drumgowna in Louth Village.

Robert was not diagnosed with schizophrenia until August 2018, with a psychiatrist stating that the defendant's symptoms were probably present for many years before this.

In February 2014, Robert went to a psychiatrist and described sometimes feeling violent and expressed concern that he had no emotion.

In late February that year Robert was assessed by a GP after he was becoming increasingly paranoid, believing he had special powers and feeling people were "programming" him to behave in a certain way. One medical note stated that Robert felt like hurting and hitting out at people at certain times and he believed people were out to get him and harm him.

A month later it was considered appropriate that Robert, who was experiencing auditory hallucinations, be detained by mental health services having "threatened to kill his parents at that point", which was described as “very concerning”.

There was an impression of drug-induced psychosis as he had taken 'LSD' the week before and it was felt his protracted history of intermittent drug use was the reason for his severe psychotic symptoms. He was prescribed quite a high dose of antipsychotic medication.

Robert had described "specific ideas about his family" and paranoid delusions that his parents may be harming or persecuting him, leading to a sense of fear and associated threats of violence by him.

The defendant believed his mother Louise was "personally programming" and "spying" on him as well as controlling his thoughts and using her knowledge to manipulate him.

When Robert was reviewed again on March 31 in 2014, he denied ongoing paranoid thoughts, accepted his symptoms were drug related and was discharged. On a discharge note written by a social worker at the time, Mark O’Connor expressed “very, very significant family concerns” that his son had been depressed for two years and hearing voices for 18 months.

The father-of-three expressed “serious concerns” for his family and wife’s safety and “there was an indication" that they could be killed in the future.

Psychiatrist Ronan Mullaney, who was called by the prosecution during the trial, noted that Robert had no other history of violence towards others outside the family unit, which he said "spoke to his long-standing persecuting ideas around them". The expert witness said the focus of Robert's concern has always been family members and it was never extended consistently to "other persons within his social world".

"HE OPENLY SAID COCAINE"

Local pharmacist Kim Curtis got to know Louise O'Connor from dispensing 'Aripiprazole' - schizophrenic or antipsychotic medication - to her for her son Robert. The defendant was also prescribed 'Phenergan' - a sedative antihistamine used to help with sleep.

Louise would also collect medication from the pharmacy in Louth Village to help with anxiety for her youngest son Evan, who was autistic.

On September 8 2025, Louise came into Ms Curtis' pharmacy with Robert. She was carrying a shoe box and asked the pharmacist for a private consultation with her son.

As she placed the shoe box, which had been found in Robert's wardrobe, on the table Louise stated "it's all Robert's medication".

When Ms Curtis looked inside, she saw between four and five months worth of medication which hadn't been consumed. "Some of the boxes were open and some were not; Louise wanted to bring the medication back to make me aware that Robert was not taking his medication," said the pharmacist.

Louise told Ms Curtis that Robert was also taking illicit drugs. "When she told me that Robert didn't flinch, he just slouched back in the chair," described the pharmacist.

Ms Curtis then asked the defendant what he had taken and a glazed-eyed and emotionless Robert replied "cocaine".

The pharmacist asked Robert whether he could see what he was doing to his mother, as Louise was distraught and heavily crying. Robert just answered 'yes'.

After Louise asked where did they go from here, Ms Curtis provided her with a phone number for 'Turas' [a service in Dundalk which helps with drug use and mental health services].

Louise agreed to keep a month's supply of the tablets found in the shoebox to see whether Robert would start taking the medication again.

Two weeks later, Ms Curtis asked Louise whether she had contacted 'Turus' but Louise said she hadn't.

In that same conversation, Louise disclosed "a disturbing incident" where Robert had come down to the sitting room when she and her husband Mark were watching television. Louise said Robert had asked her whether she had called him. Louise said she had not and Robert stated that a lady had called him or "commissioned' him to come downstairs.

Louise also divulged that Robert had a knife or had got a knife when he was standing in the sitting room on that occasion. She said her son must have been hallucinating.

The pharmacist asked Louise whether she had contacted gardai but Louise said she hadn't.

Another incident Louise shared with the pharmacist was when Robert said he was "going to kill her", but the threat had not referred directly to Louise O'Connor.

Ms Curtis agreed in cross-examination that Louise loved her son Robert and was doing her "level best" for him. The witness said it was clear that Robert was off his medication at the time - and while he had not maintained his full regime, he had taken some medication.

The pharmacist said she had made Louise aware that Robert could be involuntarily sectioned under the mental health act and detained until he was better.

However, Ms Curtis said Louise was reluctant and not prepared to do this.

"DRENCHED IN BLOOD"

The O’Connors had three sons and the trial was told the family had moved to Drumgowna from Dundalk 20 years previously to give Evan O'Connor “the freedom of the countryside”.

Special needs support worker Loretta Durrigan, who worked for Praxis Care, provided support for 27-year-old Evan, who had severe autism, OCD and an intellectual disability.

Ms Durrigan had known the family for the previous seven years and found Mark and Louise to be lovely people but very private. She said Evan wouldn't make a full sentence but if he wanted something he would be able to say it; she described him as "a quiet chap".

As part of Evan's routine, Ms Durrigan had a habit of reversing her car into the driveway of the O'Connor home at Drumgowna so it was easy for Evan to put his bag into the boot before she brought him to that day's activities.

As Ms Durrigan reversed into the driveway at 9.32am on Monday September 28 she believed she saw a Halloween decoration of some kind inside the gates, something she thought was "very unusual and odd" as Louise O'Connor wouldn't usually decorate the house for Halloween.

Ms Durrigan remained in the car for about two minutes but didn't see or hear Evan approach. When she got out of the car and walked towards the gates, she saw a body drenched in blood from head to toe with the eyes open. "At the time I didn't realise it was a body, I had to look twice".

As she stepped to the right and looked past two cars parked in the driveway she saw Evan, who was wearing only shorts, lying on his back with blood on the bottom of his legs. His head was on a step facing the patio doors.

Ms Durrigan then took a closer look at what she had seen behind the gates and realised it was Mark O'Connor's body. A white shoe lay strewn on the lawn beside him.

The special needs carer quickly got into her car and drove to a neighbour's house. Ms Durrigan was on the phone to gardai when Martina Malone came out of the house.

Ms Durrigan then told Ms Malone: "Evan and Mark are dead".

The carer described herself as distressed and said Ms Malone was in “a state of shock”. Ms Durrigan wanted Ms Malone to go back with her to the O'Connor house but two women "thought better of it" and instead went inside Ms Malone's house, locking the door behind them.

Ms Durrigan had met Robert three weeks earlier and found him very polite. She said she would have spoken to Mark in the past about doing a half marathon as he was an avid runner.

"HORSE NOISES"

Martina Malone had heard something "kicking off" at Drumgowna at about 7pm on Sunday, September 28, describing the sound as "a roar or a shout". While Evan would sometimes have outbursts due to his special needs she recognised this as Robert's voice.

Ms Malone's husband Raymond had also heard Robert shouting on the Sunday night but said a lot of it didn't make any sense. The only phrase he did hear was "I'll end you, I'll f**king end you". Mr Malone thought Robert was just having an episode and that everything would be OK.

At 8.15am the next morning, Robert appeared at Mr Malone's yard at the side of the house and apologised for the noise the previous night. Robert was calm but became a bit agitated as the conversation continued.

Mr Malone told Robert there was no need to apologise and the defendant asked him 'Where do I go from here?'. Mr Malone told him to go and talk to his parents.

When Mr Malone told his wife, she assumed the O'Connors must have locked Robert out of the house so she texted Louise at 8.30am but received no reply.

Another neighbour, Gerry Mallon, heard "unusual shouting" which he described as "horse" noises coming from the O'Connor's front garden, when he was putting the bins out at around 7.30pm on the Sunday night.

When he went back outside an hour later Mr Mallon saw a man in the back garden shouting and doing kangaroo jumps up and down in the air. Mr Mallon assumed it was Evan, the youngest O'Connor boy who had special needs.

His wife, Helen Mallon, texted Louise at 7.41pm on 'Facebook Messenger' to see if everything was OK. She got no reply.

THE SUSPECT

Garda Andrew McGuill, of the armed support unit, found no signs of life from the bodies of Mark and Evan O'Connor, when he arrived at the house in Drumgowna at 10am on September 29.

Information was relayed to him that a suspicious male had been seen about four kilometers from Drumgowna in the direction of Ardee.

When the witness looked into the kitchen through the window, the officer saw a third heavily blood-stained deceased - Louise O'Connor - lying face up on the ground but there was no sign of life.

The latest information gardai had was that the suspect was still on foot, in dark clothing and walking in the direction of Tallanstown.

"I KILLED THEM"

Ruth Callan heard "a load of sirens" as she moved around the front of her house near Tallanstown on the morning of Monday, September 29. She thought it was the postman when she saw a black shadow move across the window of the front door around 9.45am.

As she opened her door, it alerted a male who was standing at the gate outside. The man, who was visibly upset, said "sorry, I don’t want to scare you”.

Ms Callan closed the door behind her as she stepped outside towards him. She asked the man what was wrong as he shifted from side to side. "Its all muddled up in my head, I can't explain," he remarked.

Ms Callan told the man he was OK but he continued: "No, no, they tortured me for years, they don't understand."

As Ms Callan told the man to catch his breath and asked who, the man said: "My family. He did. He manipulated me for years." "He was pleading, saying 'I just need to' and then said the word 'to charge'," she continued.

The man, who was wearing work trousers, a hoodie and headphones, asked if he could come into her house but Ruth said "no, sorry". When the witness introduced herself as 'Ruth', the man said his name was 'Robert' and lived "just down the road".

When she asked Robert what happened, he told her: "I killed them." She said the defendant continued to beg to come into the house after he informed her of this.

Ms Callan could hear the sirens getting closer as Robert asked her again if he could come inside her house. She asked Robert whether the sirens were for him and he replied: "Yes, I killed them."

Ms Callan described Robert as visibly upset and shaky but yet "level-headed" and had listened when she asked a question. She said he wasn't aggressive in any way and kept his hands inside the pockets of his hoodie at all times.

Ruth told him to keep walking towards Tallanstown, which he did but not before turning around and saying "I'm sorry Ruth".

Ms Callan went back inside her house, locked her front door and rang 999 at 10.04am.

"SHOOT ME, SHOOT ME"

Detective Garda Gerard Nixon was travelling with Garda Shane O'Malley in an unmarked patrol car through Phillipstown and in the direction of Tallanstown when they saw a man in a black hoodie and wearing white headphones coming towards them on the road.

After Gda O'Malley pulled over the patrol car, the officers identified themselves as armed gardai.

The man told them his name was Robert and said 'I'm looking for ye". Robert was taking his hands in and out of his hoodie pockets as if he was looking for a weapon.

Robert became aggressive and angry as he advanced towards gardai, shouting "shoot me, shoot me, shoot me".

Det Gda Nixon informed the defendant that "no one is going to be shot here today".

The detective instructed Robert to put his hands up and kneel on the ground. Robert refused to comply a number of times but when he eventually put them over his head, the officers could see dried blood on his hands.

Robert was handcuffed for safety reasons so he could be searched but no weapon was found.

When Robert told them he wanted to sit down, he was offered the back seat of the patrol car and the handcuffs were removed.

It was at this point that Robert confessed, saying: "I killed them. I killed my father, mother and brother".

"I slashed my mother in the face. She gave me a look. I could see the reflection of my father in her face. My mother wanted to go to the bathroom. My father was behind her. I then killed my father and brother".

When asked why he had done this, Robert said there was a row over drugs and that he "only meant to kill his father and brother, not my mother. I lost my head".

Garda O'Malley confirmed to the jurors that it appeared the tragedy had taken place in or around 6.30pm and 7pm on Sunday, September 28.

When Detective Sergeant Paul Gill arrived at Phillipstown, Robert, who was sitting in the back of the garda car, with his hands covered in bloodstains, told him he was sorry.

Asked to explain in his own words what he meant by this, Robert replied: ‘I’m sorry for killing my mother. I also killed my father and brother, but I’m not sorry for that".

Robert went on to say: "My mother got in the way, I stabbed my mother in the forehead in the sitting room of our home. We had an argument at the kitchen table over my brother. He cannot talk properly."

The defendant continued: "I stabbed my mother. I stabbed my father with a kitchen knife from the block of five knives on the kitchen counter. I left when I'd stabbed my father and mother. I went back for my brother and stabbed him like a blood bag."

The accused was subsequently arrested at 11am that morning on suspicion of murder.

As they all travelled together to Drogheda Garda Station, Robert told Det Sgt Gill that he had been using cocaine lately and had bought 'Wildcat', which the detective understood to be synthetic cocaine. Robert said he wasn't happy with the 'Wildcat' he bought as it was actually salt.

During the journey Robert also asked the detective "what kind of time" he was looking at in prison.

Det Sgt Gill said Robert had "expressed a lot of remorse" on the car journey and continuously cried for at least half of it. "A lot of snot was coming from his nose which had to be cleaned, so it wasn't a nice journey or experience for anybody," said the officer.

When Robert was searched at the garda station a drug called 'mephedrone' was found on him. Cocaine would also later be found on his bedroom floor.

"SUSTAINED AND VIOLENT ATTACK"

The trial heard how Mark O'Connor died after suffering 44 stab wounds in "a sustained and violent attack", while his wife was stabbed at least 20 times. There were no obvious defence injuries on either of their bodies.

Evan O'Connor was stabbed at least 70 times, with the majority of the wounds inflicted while he was still alive. Evan had defence-type injuries that indicated he had possibly tried to grab the knife from his eldest brother during the 'sustained and violent assault'.

Chief State Pathologist Linda Mulligan said the majority of the stab wounds to Mark were over the back, head and neck. His right eye had also been disrupted by a stab wound, which had damaged the cavity where the eyeball sat but not the eyeball itself.

There was damage to Mark's backbone from a stab wound, as well as a penetrating injury through the shoulder blade, which would have required force. The pathologist also said the force required to penetrate a bone is significant and that "severe force" was used to inflict those two injuries.

Mark's cause of death was multiple stab wounds with no contributory factors.

Louise had stab wounds to the head, the front and back of the trunk and upper left arm.

Multiple stab wounds had entered the left side of the chest, damaging the left lung, which led to its collapse and an accumulation of blood in the cavity. Again the main cause of death was multiple stab wounds and no contributory factors.

Evan had 25 stab wounds to the head and neck area, as well as five stab wounds to the front of the body.

Evan had ten stab wounds to the right arm, with a lot of the wounds in the one area. Prof Mulligan said the injuries to the right arm were classical of defence injuries, where Evan had possibly tried to grab the knife and it went through the back of the hand.

The 19 stab wounds to Evan's left arm and a lot of these, particularly the ones going through the hand, were consistent with him protecting himself or trying to grab the knife.

His cause of death was blood loss and probable bilateral pneumothoraces leading to hypovolemic shock and lung collapse from multiple stabbed and incised wounds.

"A BLOOD BAG"

Robert began his first garda interview at Drogheda Garda Station on September 29 saying "I don't know what to tell you, I really don't",

The defendant continued "aside from my mates they are the only people I had in this world, I don't know why I did it".

When gardai asked Robert what he meant when he said "did it", the prisoner replied "murdering them".

Recalling the previous night, Robert said he had gone upstairs after dinner to "do some cocaine" but his parents had then called him back down to talk to him about his cocaine consumption. "In that conversation, they said 'we are not comfortable with this happening in this house'..", he explained.

Robert told officers the conversation with his parents was "about violence" and how they did not want it in the house. "It affects Evan's behaviour, if there is going to be any violence in the house, they need to know," he recalled.

When his parents asked him whether he enjoyed doing cocaine and did he want to stop, Robert told detectives: "I said no....they were very understanding about it as they always are... I was saying I didn't want to stop and what I got out of it..I went upstairs, started using cocaine and watched porn."

Robert said he later came back downstairs and saw "them all sitting in the sitting room" and "got a knife; all angry and shit". He said he had retrieved the kitchen knife from between the oven and the sink.

"I went into the sitting room and walked over with the knife and asked my mother why she didn't feel empathy and why she didn't feel the pain".

Robert said he had "slashed" his mother first "on the head" before she looked at him and said 'Rob I have to go to the toilet'. The defendant continued "she gave me that look and I was supposed to know that face".

He told gardai the look his mother gave him was like "in 'Love/Hate' when Tommy let the girl go".

Robert continued: "My brother was sitting there shocked, like nothing had happened....I told everyone to shut up and made everyone stand in a triangle".

"I saw the three in the room, they both said 'please let Evan over' and I don't know why I didn't".

Robert told detectives he was pointing a knife at the three members of his family and telling them "not to be opening their mouths at the one time". "I made two stand there and one stand there, then I tried to make them stand with their heads facing the ground so they couldn't look at me."

Robert said his mother went for the door. "I slammed it back shut and said get the f**k back in there". He said his father had charged at him to try to get out the door but he thought he stuck "it in his stomach or something".

He continued: "I tried to get the iPad from Evan and that is when it clicked in my head that it was programming reality and they were going to use the algorithm to get out".

At this point, the defendant pleaded with gardai "can I please not give details about the stabbing". "I stabbed them multiple times, I can't remember".

Robert went on to say he thought his brother’s iPad "changed the reality” and that Evan was “like a programmer”. He said he kept asking his brother “was he the programmer” and “I wanted him to get the iPad and undo everything that happened.”

Robert said he had taken cocaine "a lot regularly in the last three or four years" but he had never been violent. He began to cry as he told gardai he was from a very loving family.

He continued saying the killings "took anywhere from 15 minutes onwards; I don't want to talk about it".

When asked where the knife was, Robert said he "never found where I put it, I didn't take it out of the house, I wasn't trying to hide it like".

He said he thought "they went down the hall" at this point but "it started freaking me out when my dad wasn't dying, loads of blood was coming out, I don't want to revisit it".

Asked if he wanted to change or add anything to his first statement, Robert said: "I wish to add that my mother asked me to let Evan go" as he held them by knife point.

"Is it fair to say you are telling us you murdered them?" asked the gardai, to which the accused replied: "Yes."

A forensic expert had found a large amount of blood-staining in the sitting room covering almost all areas of the floor, on two couches and on the walls.

In his second interview, Robert said he "definitely took them out" to the garden and described being "out in the garden a lot the other night" and "just odd behaviour".

When officers put it to him that he had taken his mother outside the house, Robert said he didn't think "she was first, it could have been my dad, I don't remember like....that's when it starts to get foggy...it was like a black out".

He later said he had taken his father out to the garden first; "the two boys, Evan, it was so hard to get out like".

Robert described dragging "the lads" out of the house at different times but that he had "definitely" removed his father from the house first and brought him to the front gate at some point.

The defendant said he was "running, doing laps" of the garden and pull ups. "One time I had a wheelbarrow filled with water and dragged mum out and the rest in the house and I had to run around until the water had evaporated into the magnetic field".

"I know they were all outside at different points, all three of them were outside, I didn't know who was who, which colour I had to save...all three outside," he continued.

Asked whether the three O'Connors were deceased when he took them outside, Robert said he didn't think his mother was but he thought "she was getting there".

He said he had tried to revive his mother at one point "but it would have been way too late".

When gardai asked why his mother was not dead, Robert said he tried to "give her this like" at which point the garda indicated a CPR movement with his hands. Robert agreed, saying "like that, pushed down on her or whatever and it just released all the gas into my mouth".

He stated that he hadn't performed CPR on his father or brother.

"I was going to throw one out, one going to get into heaven and one into hell...I had to open the gate for their souls to get out...I had to choose one to save and bring into the house," he continued.

Robert said Evan was "the last one" to be brought out to the garden. "He was sitting in dad's chair, somehow made it over to mum and dads bedroom....I tried to walk him out of the house then he collapsed beside my mum and grabbed her hand".

Robert said he had left Evan "right outside the door" and that his brother was deceased when he took him outside. "When I got him out to where my mum was, they were holding hands".

He later clarified that he had carried his mother back into the house

At one stage, Robert told gardai: "Can we not talk about the violence at the minute, I know I was the one who did it but it's bothering me".

After the killings, Robert said he had gone upstairs afterwards and "paced" his bedroom for a while. "I got naked at one point, just to be clear I wasn't sexually aroused by what happened".

"UNDERSTANDING OF REALITY SO WARPED"

Consultant forensic psychiatrist Dr Fiona Toal, called to give evidence by the defence, told the jury that Robert's psychotic symptoms presented early in life and were initially attributed to drug use. She said substance abuse disorder is extremely common in schizophrenic patients.

She said Robert started smoking cannabis at 13 years old and it later progressed to cocaine, which caused significant arguments at home. It was noted that he abused an extensive amount of drugs when he was younger, spent time in a drug rehabilitation facility at 17 years old and intermittently engaged with drugs and alcohol services.

A friend of Robert's - Sander Kopanov - who had known the defendant since secondary school, described him as someone who "goes hard" at parties and "goes on the session" when he was a teenager. In later years Robert told his friend if he didn't take his medication, his "head would go" and he'd hear voices.

Dr Toal said Robert went to his GP at 16 years old with symptoms of depression and a background of polysubstance abuse. He was prescribed an antidepressant in 2011 and reported using drugs as a strategy for dealing with unpleasant emotions but wasn't assessed as acutely psychotic at the time.

Robert was assessed by a psychiatrist at 19 years old, where he reported feeling increasingly paranoid and anxious. His symptoms were attributed to drug psychosis and social anxiety, for which he was prescribed antipsychotic medication.

In 2018, the witness said Louise O'Connor contacted the GP about Robert getting very aggressive when he saw a man in a shirt and wanting to kill him. Dr Toal said Robert reported violent thoughts and believed that birds flying around him were mocking him.

Dr Toal said Robert's mother reported her son's extreme moods, aggression and talking to himself in 2018 when he was 24 years old. She said Robert reported abstinence from substances for a year and there was collateral evidence from Louise O'Connor confirming this.

"Given the absence of drug use for at least a year, Robert was formally diagnosed with schizophrenia at the end of 2018," said Dr Toal. The defendant was commenced on stronger antipsychotic medication and referred for intensive community support.

The witness said there was collateral evidence from his family that while Robert wasn't taking illicit drugs between 2018 and 2024, he had relapses throughout this time.

In February 2025, Robert's family went to the GP with concerns he was unwell again and the defendant admitted to drug use since the previous Christmas. He was diagnosed with a relapse of schizophrenia in the context of recent substance misuse.

A month before the killings Robert was reviewed by a psychiatrist but denied any psychotic symptoms. Dr Toal said the impression was that his illness was stable and he was scheduled for an outpatient review in four months time.

Robert told Dr Toal he had stopped taking his medication in August 2025 as it slowed his brain and impaired his thinking. She said in the 24 hours before the offence, Robert reported taking cocaine mixed with mephedrone.

The witness said Robert told her he started to take drugs again five weeks before the offence and was using up to three times a week. She said he reported staying up the night before doing cocaine and watching 'hypnosis porn'.

Dr Toal said Robert tried very hard to convince her he did not have a mental illness. She said his lack of insight meant he frequently stopped his medication after periods of being well and would then relapse.

The witness said that from her engagements with Robert she felt he had bizarre beliefs about his parents, thinking they were imposters who controlled his thoughts. Robert told her that he thought his brother Evan was controlling him on an iPad on the night of the fatal attack and referred to him as "the ultimate controller".

Dr Toal said her and the State's psychiatrist's conclusions are "incredibly aligned", with both parties agreeing that diminished responsibility is made out for the three deaths. However, she noted that the real point of difference between her and Dr Ronan Mullaney, for the prosecution, was in what way they found the mental disorder affected Robert's thinking and behaviour at the time of the offence.

She said both psychiatrists agree that Robert suffered with a relapse of schizophrenia in September 2025, having been diagnosed with the mental disorder in 2018.

The three criteria for a verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity under the Criminal Law Insanity Act 2006 are that an accused did not know the nature and quality of the act, or was unable to appreciate that what they did at the time was wrong or would have been unable to refrain from their actions.

The psychiatrist found Robert did know the nature and quality of the act. However, she said as his thinking was extremely disordered in the context of experiencing a resurgence of delusions he had held for 15 years this led him to not believing what he was doing was morally wrong.

She also found that Robert was not in control of his functioning and his understanding of reality was so "warped" that being able to refrain from committing the act would have made no sense to him at the time.

"RECORDED EXPRESSIONS OF REMORSE IMPORTANT"

Consultant forensic psychiatrist Dr Ronan Mullaney, called to give evidence by the prosecution, said Robert had a number of inpatient admissions between 2014 and 2016. He noted that the very significant use of cannabis before the age of 16 is a very significant risk factor in the development of schizophrenia; "it's particularly risky compared to the use in adulthood".

Dr Mullaney said the defendant was diagnosed with schizophrenia in August 2018 after a trip to Thailand when he experienced "thought broadcast type beliefs", which the psychiatrist described as a "a subjective experience where thoughts don't remain in your own head and others can hear your thoughts, like they are broadcast on some communication device...its a very distressing experience for people to have".

The psychiatrist said Robert told him in an interview in August 2026 that he would not always be frank or candid about the symptoms he was experiencing for fear of being noted to be unwell and having his medication increased. The defendant told Dr Mullaney: "I was afraid if I told them how I was really doing they would increase my medication, which was silly as I wasn't really taking my medication anyways".

Dr Mullaney said when the defendant had a relapse in February/March 2025 an emergency care plan was put in place to treat him at home. "He was assessed at that point as being a risk to himself and others but nevertheless he didn't have full inpatient admission and by mid March he was working full time again".

In Robert's last review in August 2025, medics were reasonably confident he was not suffering from any psychotic symptoms at the time. The psychiatrist noted that Robert would try to impress upon people that he was slightly better than he would have been so as not to have his medication increased or decreased.

He said the defendant met the criteria for a verdict of guilty of manslaughter by diminished responsibility, but did not meet any of the three criteria for the special verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity.

The witness found Robert's illness was the most relevant factor underlying the abnormal mental state but said it was difficult to discount the psychotic state, which may have resulted from intoxication.

He said this underlined his belief that section 6 of the Criminal Law Insanity Act 2006 was the most appropriate opinion for him to hold on the balance of probabilities, but he could not rule out the use of intoxicants at the material time. However, he said this fact in itself did not negate evidence of a substantial mental disorder.

"You said you rely on schizophrenia and its responsibility for the alleged act?" asked the prosecutor, to which the witness replied "yes". He also accepted the substance abuse may have aggravated the psychotic episode.

Dr Mullaney agreed that there were a number of very "specific accords" between him and psychiatrist Dr Toal. These were that the defendant was suffering from a relapse of schizophrenia, that this coincided with a four-to-five week period of non-compliance with medication before the offences as well as intoxication and that Robert was aware of the nature and quality of the act.

Dr Mullaney found that on the balance of probabilities, Robert's schizophrenia substantially diminished his responsibility for the three killings and that he fully met the criteria for a verdict of guilty of manslaughter by diminished responsibility due to the presence of the active symptoms of the mental disorder.

The witness said the defendant met the criteria for a mental disorder but that he didn't meet any of the three criteria for a verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity.

Referring to the second limb of being unable to appreciate that what he did at the time was wrong, the doctor found Robert had knowledge that the killings were wrong, despite the substantial distortion of his judgement and delusional beliefs. He said the defendant had not suffered a complete loss of appreciation that his actions were wrong.

The witness said Robert's "recorded expressions of remorse" were important when he said he was sorry for killing his mother but not his father and brother. He also noted his apologies to neighbour Ruth Callan, who he told "yes, I killed them" and went on to say "I'm sorry Ruth".

The witness said Robert had clearly expressed remorse, which implied a sense of guilt and responsibility.

Dr Mullaney also referred to the question Robert posed to gardai when he was arrested regarding "the time he might be facing and his incarceration in terms of years". "Talking about the sentence does indicate a good understanding of his role," he added.

Referring to the third limb of being unable to refrain from his actions, the psychiatrist said it is inconsistent or incongruous to make a claim of being taken over by an alien force for minutes or hours and then being able to recall it with such clarity.

"To my mind, Robert was certainly experiencing a degree of alien understanding but it wasn't as such that he was being completely controlled and wasn't able to refrain".

He agreed with the prosecutor that Robert's ability to regulate his conduct was substantially impaired but did not go as far as being unable to refrain.

Dr Mullaney explained that the most reasonable understanding on the balance of probabilities is that the defendant's culpability and responsibilities are substantially diminished but "not obliterated enough" that it would give rise to a special verdict.

Dr Mullaney said his opinion did not support the insanity verdict but rather guilty of manslaughter on the basis of diminished responsibility. "My clear opinion on the balance of probabilities is that he was suffering from schizophrenia at the time and this mental disorder substantially diminished his responsibility for each of the killings."

Asked by the judge whether these killings had occurred in the midst of a "florid" psychotic episode, Dr Mullaney said they had but were exacerbated by the use of substances which are known to induce such states, even in the absence of illness. He said the interaction of the underlying illness and its relapse together with the intoxicants led "to the outcome we are dealing with".

Dr Mullaney then qualified this by saying that the intoxication had exacerbated the defendant's schizophrenic episode. "The illness and much of the abnormal mental state was as a result of illness, what I cannot disentangle is that he was acutely intoxicate