A 33-year-old man who attacked a sleeping 88-year-old Mercy University Hospital patient who then died of a heart attack in his bed has been found guilty of manslaughter by reason of diminished responsibility.
On the opening day of his trial at the Central Criminal Court, Dylan Magee, of Churchfield Green, in Cork city had pleaded not guilty to murdering Matthew Healy, at Room 2, St Joseph's Ward, Mercy University Hospital, Cork on 22 January 2023, but guilty to his manslaughter by reason of diminished responsibility.
After three days of evidence, the jury of four women and eight men deliberated for just over two and a half hours, before returning this afternoon with their verdict of guilty to manslaughter by reason of diminished responsibility.
Both Magee and Mr Healy, who was a retired farmer, were placed in the same hospital ward but the men were not known to each other.
The jury heard that Mr Healy went into hospital on 13 January 2023 having suffered a fall at his home. His wife Delia had died earlier that month having been cared for by her husband at the family home in Berrings, Co Cork.
The court heard Magee was admitted to hospital on 19 January 2023 in a hallucinatory state. He was seeing dead people and hearing voices.
The father-of-three was on anti-depressants for a month prior to his hospital admission. He had self-medicated with cannabis and claimed to have taken 120 benzodiazepines in the week before his hospital admission. A hospital toxicology screening also showed that he had morphine in his system.
When interviewed by gardaí in the aftermath of the attack Magee said that someone had been tormenting people on the hospital ward. He admitted that he had "lost the plot" and started beating Mr Healy. He was of the mistaken belief that Mr Healy was a named person in his 20s and that he had "ate his son".
He said that Mr Healy was asleep in the bed across from him when he started "punching him".
He stated that he had probably hit Mr Healy "over twenty times" with his "knuckles in straight punches".
He did not recall wandering around the hospital ward and going up to patients in the hours before the incident.
He said he was "seeing dead people" when he was brought to the GP prior to his hospital admission.
The jury also heard that in a garda interview on 23 January 2023 Magee was talking to the wall instead of the investigating officers.
In her closing speech to the jury Ms Justice Siobhan Lankford said that the jury might well be of the view that "both Dylan Magee and Matthew Healy were let down by the system".
However, she called on them to be "dispassionate" in their approach to the evidence.
Defence barrister, Brendan Grehan, SC, in his closing speech to the jury said that he couldn’t understand why Magee was placed in a general ward.
"For reasons I don’t quite understand Dylan Magee was put in a general ward with elderly patients. He was hallucinating. He was hearing voices and seeing dead people."
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Mr Grehan said that there was no rational explanation for the bizarre behaviour of Dylan Magee and that there was "clearly a mental disorder there".
Meanwhile, Prosecution Senior Counsel Jane Hyland added that it was a "horrendous case" with a "tragic outcome". She stated that both men had presented to hospital looking "for assistance" for medical issues.
Defence psychiatrist Dr Stephen Monks said that Magee’s GP had given him an urgent referral to MUH with suspected delirium. Dr Monks said it was his belief that the delirium evolved into withdrawal delirium.
"That is a life threatening condition. Or it can be. He was in an acute state of delirium."
Evidence was also given by Prosecution psychiatrist, Dr Richard Church, who said that Dylan Magee was very severely impaired to the point of being unable to refrain from acting in the manner in which he did.
Thanking the jury for their service, Ms Justice Lankford described it as a very difficult and traumatic case.
She excused them from jury service for a period of five years.
Defence Senior Counsel Brendan Grehan said Magee "wanted to express, at the earliest appropriate opportunity, his deep remorse for what had happened to Mr Healy, and the distress it obviously caused to his family and friends".
Ms Justice Lankford directed the preparation of a Probation Report and Victim Impact Statements.
She listed the case for mention on 12 January next, to set a day for sentencing.
