The Garda Superintendent who led the investigation into the killing of a 16-year-old girl in Co Kilkenny has welcomed today's verdict on her mother of not guilty by reason by insanity.
Aidan Roche's comments came as the jury at the Central Criminal Court delivered its verdict on Lynn Gibbs, a 47-year-old psychiatrist, who was charged with murdering her daughter, Ciara, at their home in November 2006.
The jury deliberated for 21 minutes.
Both the prosecution and defence said that she was suffering from a mental disorder at the time.
Mr Justice Paul Carney told the jury it was agreed that she met at least two of the three conditions needed to bring in a verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity.
Any one of the three conditions would allow an insanity verdict, and Justice Carney told the jury if it brought in any other verdict it would be saying that psychiatry is bunkum.
Earlier a close friend of Lynn Gibbs described calling to visit her just hours before she killed her teenage daughter.
Dr Marese Cheasty told the Central Criminal Court that while she was concerned that Mrs Gibbs was seriously depressed, she never thought she was a danger to herself or anyone else.
Dr Cheasty has known Lynn Gibbs since childhood, and also works as a psychiatrist.
She called to the house on the night Ciara Gibbs died, and spoke to her and her mother. She said Lynn Gibbs was clearly very depressed and her thinking distorted.
Dr Cheasty urged her to go into hospital, but Mrs Gibbs did not want to because she wanted to be there for Ciara, who she feared was suffering from anorexia. She also asked Lynn Gibbs if she thought of death, and if she ever would do anything about it.
Lynn Gibbs replied no, without any hesitation, and I believed she was telling the truth, she said.
She said if she had thought Lynn Gibbs was a danger to herself or anyone else, she would have stayed the night herself, or telephoned her husband, Gerard.
She said Lynn had even asked her that night what Christmas present she should buy her own daughter, to whom Lynn was godmother.
The trial also heard from Lynn Gibbs's younger sister and her stepmother today, who both told of how they had been concerned for both Lynn and Ciara's wellbeing in the weeks before Ciara's death.
Lynn Gibbs is the second person to be found not guilty by reason of insanity since the new insanity legislation came into force in 2006.
The first person to receive such a verdict was John Egan in July 2006.
He had pleaded not guilty to the murder of 46-year-old Frances Ralph at a taxi rank in Naas, Co Kildare, in August 2005.
