Cork man found not guilty of murder of brother by reason of insanity

The jury considering psychiatric evidence in the case against the 43-year-old Carrigaline man accused of murdering his brother and attempting to murder his father found him not guilty by reason of insanity.

The seven men and five women of the jury deliberated for one hour and 43 minutes on the issue and returned to court with their unanimous verdicts this afternoon (April 24).

43-year-old John Murphy Jnr of Seaview Avenue, Carrigaline, County Cork, faced charges of murdering his 27-year-old brother, Shane Murphy, and attempting to murder his father, John Aloysius “Weeshie” Murphy Snr, who was 75 at the time at the family home on Saturday, March 26 2022, contrary to Common Law. 

He was also charged with two related charges of producing a knife during the crimes.

Now on all four charges he has been found not guilty by reason of insanity.

Ms Justice Siobhán Lankford thanked the jury for their work on this case which she described as difficult, sad and emotive.

Prosecution senior counsel Jane Hyland then applied under the Criminal Law (Insanity) Act of 2006 for John Murphy Junior to be examined at the Central Mental Hospital to ascertain his present condition in terms of his mental disorder. Defence senior counsel Tom Creed said that was the appropriate application. Ms Justice Lankford remanded him in custody to the CMH for a report to be presented at 2 p.m. on May 7.

'Acute psychotic state'

Clinical psychiatrists, Dr Stephen Monks and Dr Jamie Walsh, for the defence and prosecution, respectively, testified that the accused man, John Murphy jnr. was in an acute psychotic state as a result of schizophrenic illness at the time, that his judgement was significantly impaired and he was suffering delusions and hallucinations and had lost touch with reality.

Ms Hyland told the jury that in effect there was agreement between the prosecution and defence about the psychiatric evidence in the case.

Background 

Detective Garda Ian Breen outlined the background to the events in the early hours of that morning when the accused man stabbed his brother nine times causing his death and stabbed his father multiple times too in attempted murder.

When interviewed by gardaí the accused man “continuously accused gardaí of manipulating airwaves in the interview room.” He made a series of allegations against several members of his family, all of which gardaí believed were without any basis. These included allegations that his life was being threatened. For instance he said that a week earlier the freezer had been defrosted and that the reason for this was because he was going to be killed and his body was going to be put into the freezer.

As for placing the knife beside Shane’s body in the bedroom, he said, “I set up to make it look like Shane killed my dad. I am ashamed of that.”

Det. Garda Breen said that the late Shane Murphy had acted in a selfless manner to protect his father from a knife attack by his brother, John, and that in so acting he was himself stabbed nine times, one of those wounds -a stab to the heart - being fatal on its own.

In evidence of the tragic nature of the incident at the Murphy family home on that date just over two years ago Det. Garda Breen said it was believed that Shane Murphy died in his bedroom while on a phone call to the emergency services.