A consultant forensic psychiatrist has said that the mental health difficulties faced by a man who admits killing but denies murdering his neighbour with a machete are more in keeping with substance misuse than schizophrenia.
Dr Mary Davoren's opinion regarding the mental health of the accused man Patrick McDonagh differs from that of Professor Patricia Casey. Professor Casey, who was called by Mr McDonagh's defence, previously told the trial that Mr McDonagh's responsibility for the killing was substantially reduced because at the time he was suffering acute symptoms of psychosis due to schizophrenia.
Patrick McDonagh (52), with an address at Whitechapel Road, Clonsilla, Dublin 15, is charged with murdering his next-door neighbour Peter McDonald (73) on Whitechapel Road on July 25th 2020.
He has pleaded not guilty to murder but guilty to manslaughter. The State has not accepted his plea, and he is on trial at the Central Criminal Court.
Dr Davoren on Thursday told prosecution counsel Philip Rahn SC that she had reviewed Mr McDonagh's past engagements with psychiatric services over many years.
She said that mental health services in Blanchardstown had initially diagnosed Mr McDonagh with schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder but over time, psychiatrists came to the view that substance misuse was the primary concern.
They noted that Mr McDonagh had a "significant history of polysubstance misuse including significant levels of benzodiazepine dependence."
Dr Davoren said that having reviewed Mr McDonagh's records, she shared the view of those psychiatrists.
She said they had come to their conclusion that his mental health difficulties were "more in keeping with substance misuse rather than schizophrenia" over many years and as a result of repeated reviews by his community mental health team.
Dr Davoren also noted that Mr McDonagh told her during interviews carried out after the death of Mr McDonald that he had started taking cocaine aged 24 or 25 when he lived in London.
He said he got into thousands of pounds of debt, got beaten up and was admitted to a psychiatric hospital but absconded. He said he began smoking heroin aged 19 but that he never injected.
Dr Davoren further noted that Mr McDonagh told another psychiatrist in 2013 that he had injected heroin during his 20s.
After returning to Ireland aged 27 or 28, Mr McDonagh told Dr Davoren that he "maybe dabbled in cocaine" but by the time of the interview he hadn't used it for many years.
He denied taking heroin or ecstasy after returning to Ireland. Prior to the death of Mr McDonald, he said he was smoking cannabis every day and would consume about two €50 bags per week. He told Dr Davoren that cannabis "relaxes me and stops me getting epilepsy".
He also told her that he would smoke a €50 bag of cannabis in one day, if he had the money, in the time preceding Mr McDonald's death.
He denied any other drug misuse in that period.
Dr Davoren will continue her evidence in front of Mr Justice Michael MacGrath and a jury of nine men and three women on Friday.
