A jury has found an American man who killed his father at a five-star hotel, during a psychotic episode, not guilty of murder by reason of insanity.
Thirty-one-year-old Henry McGowan from Brooklyn in New York killed his 66-year-old father John McGowan at Ballyfin Demesne on 12 November 2024.
The court heard two consultant psychiatrists, for the defence and prosecution, agreed Henry McGowan was suffering from schizoaffective disorder at the time of the killing.
Mr McGowan suffered a relapse of his mental illness while on a trip to Europe in November 2024.
He travelled to Dublin on 11 November where he claimed he ran from Dublin Airport to the city centre.
The next day he went to the Mater Hospital where he was prescribed medication.
The court heard he did not give doctors at the Mater details of a previous mental health incident in 2022.
His family had become deeply concerned about him and his father flew from the US on what was described as a mission of mercy to bring him home.
However, within hours of hugging his son at the Mater, John McGowan had been killed by Henry, who was in the throes of a psychotic episode.
There was no history of violence between them.
Henry had disposed of all his belongings, including his passport, at the airport and the father and son travelled to the five-star Ballyfin Demesne hotel in Laois for the night while they waited for an emergency passport.
John McGowan was overheard by a taxi driver asking his son to make him one promise, "that you will not run away tonight".
They had an agreement that Henry would take his medication after dinner, but when he was seen walking naked around the pool area, his father took him to a changing cubicle.
Henry McGowan emerged a short time later and jumped into the pool.
Staff found his father in a pool of blood in the changing cubicle.
He was pronounced dead by emergency services.
Henry McGowan was found sitting in the library.
He later described in graphic detail how he had killed his father.
He said he felt his father was yelling at him like he was a child and was forcing him to take medication.
He also claimed God was telling him what to do.
He described how he had strangled his father and said he was shocked at how long it took to kill him.
He said he told his father he would always love him no matter what, as he took his last breath.
The trial heard from two consultant psychiatrists, one for the defence and one for the prosecution.
Both agreed that Henry McGowan was suffering from a schizoaffective disorder and was psychotic.
They found he met all three criteria for a verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity because he did not know the nature of what he was doing, he did not know what he was doing was wrong and he could not stop himself from doing it.
Dr Stephen Monks said Henry McGowan was in a profoundly psychotic mental state, believing his father had been replaced by an evil imposter and that he had been ordained by God to kill his father.
He said John McGowan became "incorporated into his son's psychotic world" at the hotel.
Dr Monks said Mr McGowan described experiencing impulsive behaviour such as buying a "conspicuous pink coat" in Harrods and renting a Lamborghini in Paris in the lead-up to strangling his father.
The court heard he had previously been detained in a psychiatric hospital in 2022, after an incident on a flight to Paris where he attempted to seize an infant, believing he had to sacrifice a child to save the plane.
He also expressed delusional beliefs about his father during this previous incident.
The first indication that he was relapsing came in August 2024, when he asked his sister for $60,000.
In October 2024, his mother accompanied him to Italy as part of his trip to Europe and found him very manic.
His family became increasingly concerned that he was not taking his medication.
Prosecution expert Gautam Gulati told Senior Counsel Brendan Grehan that the accused had an abnormal mental state leading up to the offence and was suffering from an acute psychotic episode.
Mr McGowan came from a wealthy Irish-American family.
His father had been a Wall Street trader and the court heard Henry McGowan himself said he had earned $4.5m dollars from his last job, which he quit in October 2024.
Mr Grehan told the jurors the psychiatric evidence was all one way in the case.
He said it was a tragic case and it often happened that the people most at danger from someone who develops an active mental illness are those closest to them.
He said it was indeed a tragedy that John McGowan, who came on a mission of mercy to help his son, ended up dying in the way he did.
Defence counsel Michael Bowman said Mr McGowan’s behaviour had verged from unusual to bizarre before he arrived in Ireland.
He described how family members had worked all angles they could to get him help in Ireland.
He said Henry McGowan’s father had put himself in harm’s way by prioritising his son’s mental health over his own wellbeing.
Mr Bowman said the law recognised that those who are mentally unwell need treatment.
He said by any standard the appropriate verdict was not guilty by reason of insanity.
Mr Justice Paul McDermott told the jurors the essence of this case was mental health and mental health was at every step of the case.
He told them Mr McGowan was under active treatment in the Central Mental Hospital and would continue to be treated there.
Judge McDermott thanked the jury members for their participation in a very difficult case and excused them from further jury duty for five years.
He expressed his sympathy to the McGowan family, praising their "great dignity and courage" and the extreme care he said they had taken in "trying to do the right thing all along".
The case will be back before the court again on 20 February, when the judge will hear evidence about the proposed treatment programme for Mr McGowan.
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