Man found guilty of manslaughter of elderly patient in Cork hospital by reason of diminished responsibility
Dylan Magee leaving the Bridewell Garda Station, Cork. Picture Dan Linehan
A 33-year-old hospital patient with delirium who punched another patient, an 88-year-old man, to death in the early hours of the morning in the room which they shared, was this afternoon found not guilty to murder but guilty to manslaughter by reason of diminished responsibility.
The eight men and four women of the jury took two hours and 33 minutes of deliberations today to deliver their unanimous verdict.
Dylan Magee of 30 Churchfield Green, Cork, had entered a plea to manslaughter in those terms but not guilty to murder on the charge that on January 22, 2023, at Room 2, St. Joseph’s Ward, Mercy University Hospital, he did murder Matthew Healy, contrary to Common Law.
As soon as the jury came back with that precise verdict this afternoon shortly after 4 p.m., defence senior counsel Brendan Grehan said, “Mr Magee wants at the earliest available opportunity to express his deep remorse for what happened to Mr Healy and the distress he obviously caused to his family and friends.”
Ms Justice Siobhán Lankford adjourned the case for mention at the Central Criminal Court on January 13 for the purpose of fixing a date for the sentencing hearing. A victim impact statement on behalf of the Healy family is to be prepared.
Mr Grehan said that in terms of the report on the accused for the sentencing hearing the defence would ask for the two psychiatrists’ reports, that formed a central part of the trial, to be considered at sentence.
Ms Justice Lankford said she would also direct preparation of a probation report.
Prosecution and defence lawyers in this trial agreed that verdicts of guilty or not guilty to murder were effectively “not on the table” and that the issue for the jury was “in the middle ground of mental disorder.”
Prosecution senior counsel Jane Hyland and defence senior counsel Brendan Grehan both agreed on this matter in their closing speeches to the jury at the Central Criminal Court sitting in Cork today.
Ms Justice Lankford told the jury before they commenced their deliberations that they could well take the view that 33-year-old Dylan Magee who was admitted to hospital for treatment for delirium, and 88-year-old Matthew Healy who had a fall at home, were both let down by the system.
Ms Hyland said today, “This is a horrendous case. It is a tragedy for Matthew Healy and for his family. It is a difficult case for Dylan Magee. Both of these men went to hospital for treatment. I would ask you to put away what you might undoubtedly feel, and the bizarreness of the interviews, with references to cannibalising children, and ask you to narrow in on the psychiatric evidence.
“We suggest the ingredients are there for a verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity and it is also open to you to give a verdict of not guilty to murder, guilty to manslaughter by diminished responsibility.” Mr Grehan said, “Effectively, the issue is about mental disorder and the impact it had on what occurred. No one can take away the awful tragedy that befell Mr Healy and his family. The only thing for which we can be a small bit grateful is that he was asleep and hopefully was knocked out by the first blow. At almost 89 and having recently buried his wife.
“Dylan Magee was slowly losing contact with reality. For reasons we don’t quite understand, Dylan Magee was put into a ward with a number of elderly patients when he was clearly showing mental health symptoms of delirium, with which he was diagnosed - hearing voices, hallucinating, seeing dead people, behaving in a hyper manner.
"Dylan Magee developed a fixation that he (the deceased) was his uncle, which he was not… that Mr Healy had eaten his child, killed him or kidnapped him. And that he was (named man) in his 20s.
“(Outside the room after the fatal attack) one nurse described the accused as looking like he did the right thing here, looking like he thought he had done a good thing. You are dealing with a mind that was clearly disturbed. I am contending for a guilty verdict but guilty of the appropriate offence and is not guilty of murder but guilty of manslaughter by reason of diminished responsibility.”
Both sides agreed that the law does not provide for this type of defence where an offence is committed against a background of intoxication and that there must be a mental disorder. They agreed that the accused had been 65 hours in the hospital setting at the relevant time and that cannabis and Benzodiazepine tablets taken by Dylan Magee before his admission were no longer in his system and that the killing occurred against the background of a mental condition.
Mr Grehan said that in other words, “Intoxication rules you out for a mental disorder defence – you cannot get out of your head, do something, and then say, I was out of my head.”
During the trial there was evidence of Dylan Magee being interviewed about what happened at around 5 a.m. that morning.
He said, “A lot of travellers came across and were tormenting us for the night. We got robbed. (Believed his son was taken). I started beating him, saying give me back the child. I kept hitting him and I couldn’t stop. The next thing I was in the van in handcuffs.
“He was asleep in the bed. I took the opportunity to beat him. When I stopped I was destroyed in blood. People coming into the room looked afraid. I realised I went over the top.” He said his punches were full force and amounted to about 20 blows over a minute or two. The accused said he believed the victim was a particular man he knew who was in his mid-20s.
Asked what his plan was, he replied, “To hit him and teach him a lesson, that he cannot do that kind of thing. They are going to get mangled some night. I was in a sound state of mind when I was doing it. I didn’t think he was going to die at all. I looked at my hands. He kidnapped my child.
“I was vexed. I told him he robbed my son and I started hitting him. I wanted to give him a hammering. I told him this is what is going to happen – he won’t be annoying me anymore. When his face went soft I said that is enough now.” At another stage he told gardaí, “I had no self-control.” He said he was seeing dead people including his brother and a friend who had both died in the previous year by suicide.
Later he said, “He killed my youngfella so I killed him… My head was all over the place… I was fully sure he killed my son.” “Were you going to keep going until he was dead?” he was asked. Dylan Magee replied, “Probably, yeah.” Consultant psychiatrists Dr Stephen Monks and Dr Richard Church were called respectively by the defence and the prosecution and they both referred to the accused suffering from delirium, that could have resulted from Benzodiazepine withdrawal as the accused to take up to 50 of these kind of tablets every day.
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