A 33-year-old man who punched a retired farmer to death in an unprovoked attack during an acute state of delirium has been sentenced to 13 years in jail with the final year suspended, after he was convicted of manslaughter due to diminished responsibility.
The jury which convicted Dylan Magee of Churchfield Green in Cork heard he had been on anti-depressants for a month prior to being admitted to hospital, where the killing took place.
He also claimed to have taken 120 benzodiazepine tablets in the week before going to hospital.
Matthew Healy was an 88-year-old retired farmer from Berrings in Co Cork.
He was admitted to the Mercy University Hospital on 13 January 2023, having suffered a fall at home.
Mr Healy died just over a week later, after he was punched more than 20 times in an unprovoked attack by Magee with whom he shared his hospital ward.
Magee, who is a 33-year-old father of three from Churchfield Green in Cork, was admitted to the Mercy University Hospital in Cork on January 19, 2023, suffering hallucinations.
He had been self-medicating with cannabis and claimed to have taken 120 benzodiazepine tablets in the week before going to hospital.
He later told gardaí he thought Mr Healy had eaten his son after he "lost the plot".
He said he punched Mr Healy more than 20 times.
At his trial at the Central Criminal Court, Magee pleaded not guilty to the murder of Mr Healy but guilty to his manslaughter by reason of diminished responsibility.
After three days of evidence in December, the jury found him guilty of manslaughter by reason of diminished responsibility.
In a victim impact statement to the court last month, Matthew Healy's daughter Claire called on Ms Justice Siobhán Lankford to show no mercy or leniency to Magee, and to impose the maximum sentence possible on him.
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In sentencing today, Ms Justice Lankford said she couldn't ignore the psychiatric evidence which was put forward at the trial.
She noted that it was open to the jury to return a verdict of not guilty of murder by reason of insanity, but they chose instead a verdict of guilty of manslaughter by reason of diminished responsibility.
She said that if this killing was carried out by Magee without any distortion of his mental state, it would have attracted a sentence at the very highest end of the scale.
Ms Justice Lankford described Mr Healy as a completely helpless, elderly man who was in a very vulnerable position.
She said Magee was a young, strong man.
Ms Justice Lankford said the evidence suggested that, at the very least, it was unwise for Dylan Magee to have been placed in a general ward in the hospital that night, even with a care assistant.
She sentenced Magee to 13 years in jail, with one year suspended.
