Man (33) who killed hospital patient (88) deserves maximum sentence, court hears

Olivia Kelleher

A man who attacked a sleeping 88-year-old hospital patient who then died of a heart attack in his bed should receive the “maximum sentence permitted by law,” his family have told a sentencing hearing.

In December of last year, Dylan Magee (33) was found guilty of the manslaughter of “true gentleman” Matthew Healy by reason of diminished responsibility.

He had been charged with the murder of the pensioner on January 22nd, 2023, at the Mercy University Hospital (MUH) in the city.

A trial at the Central Criminal Court sitting in Cork heard that the men, who were not known to each other, had been placed in the same hospital ward.

Healy was taken to the hospital on January 13th, 2023 after he fell out of bed and hit his head at his home in Berrings, Co Cork. His wife Delia, had passed away earlier that month.

Magee, of Churchfield Green, Churchfield in Cork, was admitted to the hospital on January 19th, 2023, following a referral by his doctor. He was in a hallucinatory state, seeing dead people and hearing voices.

Magee had been on an anti depressant for a month before 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 and cannabis in his system.

The jury heard that Magee was placed in the same ward as Healy. Shortly after 5am on the morning of January 22nd, 2023, Magee became agitated and began attacking the elderly hospital patient who was asleep in another bed in the ward.

Magee punched Healy between four and six times. Staff attempted to intervene. Magee struck Mr Healy another three times before staff managed to drag him away.

One nurse broke a finger in the process of trying to restrain Magee who yelled “This man ate my son.”

When interviewed by gardai in the aftermath of the attack, Magee claimed that a person had been tormenting people on the hospital ward. No such person existed.

He admitted that he had “lost the plot” and started beating Healy. He was of the mistaken belief that the pensioner was a named person in his twenties and that he had “ate his son.”

Both the defence and prosecution consultant psychiatrists in the case had agreed that the ability of Magee to refrain from the attack was impaired.

At a sentencing hearing in Cork, Matthew Healy’s daughter Claire said that hearing her father had died was a “sucker punch in itself.”

“When I heard that he had been attacked by another patient, I was convinced I must be trapped in a nightmare that I would eventually wake from. But I will never wake up from that nightmare.

"My brother was burdened with the horrendous ordeal of having to formally identify Dad's beaten body in the morgue.

"I was spared that trauma, but it also meant that I never got to say goodbye."

Healy said that her father deserved “to slip away from this world as gently and kindly as the man he was.”

“Not lying in bed terrified, then choking on his own blood after being beaten to death by a man shouting that our Dad had eaten his children.”

“Words can't express how traumatising it has been to discover that the attack was carried out by someone who went on a drug binge, suffered delirium from the withdrawal, and then pleaded diminished responsibility.”

Healy described the verdict of guilty of manslaughter by reason of diminished responsibility as being only suitable for “genuinely ill individuals.”

“Not for those suffering delirium due to self induced drug withdrawal. We are the product of our choices, and I will never accept excuses suggesting the perpetrator was not responsible for his actions. His own life choices led to him punching our Dad to death.”

She asked that the court impose the “absolute maximum sentence permitted by law” and said that no member of her family “should ever have to fear crossing paths” with Mr Magee again.

Healy said that her father was a “gentle soul” with a “beautiful heart.

She said that her father was no doubt “absolutely petrified about what was going on in his room at the Mercy Hospital, but too polite to say anything.”

Healy also spoke of her distress at the behaviour of the media in the wake of the tragedy. She said that headlines were sensationalised and information was inaccurate.

Magee, through his Senior Counsel Brendan Grehan, expressed his remorse for the pain caused to the family and friends of the deceased.

Judge Siobhan Lankford offered her condolences to the Healy family following their loss. She previously said that one could reasonably conclude that both men were let down by the system.

The Judge would need time to consider the matter of sentencing. Magee was further remanded in custody for sentencing on April 17th next.