Courts

Woman who stabbed mother (76) to death found not guilty of murder by reason of insanity

Moire Bergin, who had previously been detained 16 times under the Mental Health Act, believed her mother was the devil, trial at Central Criminal Court told

A jury at the Central Criminal Court found Moire Bergin not guilty of murder by reason of insanity
A jury at the Central Criminal Court found Moire Bergin not guilty of murder by reason of insanity
Alison O'Riordan
Wed Jul 03 2024 - 12:48

A woman who stabbed her 76-year-old mother to death in the belief she was the devil just five days after she was released from psychiatric care has been found not guilty of murder by reason of insanity.

The 12 jurors accepted the evidence given by two consultant forensic psychiatrists that the accused Moire Bergin was suffering from bipolar affective disorder with symptoms of mania, depression and psychosis at the time of the killing and fulfilled the criteria for the special verdict.

The case, Ms Bergin’s defence counsel Fiona Murphy SC had told the trial jury, was a “heartbreaking” one, with the defendant stood accused of murdering her elderly mother, “the one person to whom she felt closest with and who supported her tirelessly through her life”.

Moire Bergin (47), with an address at Seville Place in Dublin 1, had pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to the murder of her elderly mother, Mary Bergin, in her home at First Avenue, Seville Place in Dublin 1 on April 13th, 2022.

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The Central Criminal Court trial heard that Ms Bergin had struggled with her mental health since 2005 and was detained 16 times under the Mental Health Act before the killing.

Symptoms of Ms Bergin’s mental illness included religious delusions and exposing herself, which one psychiatrist said was a clear indicator that she was not well. The defendant’s mental health deteriorated significantly in the year leading up to the fatal stabbing with more frequent admissions to hospital.

Ms Bergin had six psychiatric admissions to hospital between March 6th, 2021, and April 8th, 2022, and was last released from hospital five days before killing her mother.

The two psychiatrists called as expert witnesses were both in agreement that the defendant met the three criteria for a verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity under the Criminal Law Insanity Act, 2006, in that she did not know the nature and quality of the act, was unable to appreciate that what she did at the time was morally wrong and would have been unable to refrain from her actions.

The one-day trial at the Central Criminal Court, which Mr Justice Paul McDermott called “stark and deeply tragic”, heard a bloodstained Ms Bergin was found naked on a Dublin street after fatally stabbing her mother in the head and neck. She told a garda at the scene: “I killed my mother, I killed her, she is inside covered in blood.”

A 999 call had been made by the deceased, Mary Bergin, hours before she was killed, seeking an ambulance for her daughter, who was naked in the back garden at the time.

State Pathologist Dr Heidi Okkers, who carried out a postmortem examination on Mary Bergin, found stab wounds to the victim’s neck and forehead as well as defensive injuries to the back of the forearms. She had experienced significant blood loss which had caused organ failure and death.

During interviews at Store Street Garda station the defendant talked “about the devil being the ruination of souls” and having seen the devil in her mother’s eyes.

The jury of six men and six women spent one hour and seven minutes deliberating on Wednesday, before bringing in a unanimous verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity.

Prosecution counsel James Dwyer SC made an application to the court asking the judge to commit Ms Bergin to the designated centre for inpatient care for not more than 14 days.

Mr Justice McDermott then made an order committing Ms Bergin to the Central Mental Hospital today, with her return before the court scheduled for July 16th. The judge also directed the preparation of a psychiatric assessment by an approved medical officer.