A 34-year-old Co Westmeath man who killed another man in a Dublin bar more than a year ago has been found guilty but insane by a jury in the Central Criminal Court.
Aidan Heneghan from Brosna Lawn, Mullingar had denied murdering Frank McCann in the Front Lounge in March 2004.
The jury was told at the outset that insanity was an issue in the trial.
The jury heard that Heneghan had become convinced that Mr McCann had drugged and raped him and posted pictures on the Internet.
At about 11.20pm on 2 March 2004 Heneghan, a trainee chef, walked into a packed Front Lounge bar in Dublin.
He had a chef's chopping knife hidden in his sleeve and he walked up to Mr McCann, put his arm around him, slit his throat and then stabbed him twice.
Psychiatric evidence on behalf of the prosecution and defence was that Heneghan was suffering from paranoid delusions, a form of schizophrenia.
He believed that Mr McCann, a man he knew from one encounter, had drugged him with the date rape drug, Rohypnol, then raped him and posted photographs on the Internet.
There is no evidence that this ever happened but Heneghan still believes this to be the case and that he was right to kill Mr McCann.
There was no dispute in the evidence and in the diagnosis of two psychiatrists that Heneghan was psychiatrically ill and did not know that his actions in killing Mr McCann were wrong.
The jury took 32 minutes to deliver a verdict of guilty but insane.
