The son of a wealthy Irish-American family described experiencing impulsive behaviour such as buying a “conspicuous pink coat” in Harrods and renting a Lamborghini in Paris in the lead-up to strangling his 66-year-old father at a five-star midlands resort, the Central Criminal Court has heard.
The jury heard that Henry McGowan’s father John, a Wall Street trader, had previously travelled to Europe to help his son after he was involuntarily detained in a psychiatric hospital for attempting to seize an infant from a bassinet on a flight into Paris.
Consultant forensic psychiatrist Dr Stephen Monks, called to give evidence by the defence, told the trial that the accused was experiencing a relapse of schizoaffective disorder when he strangled his father and did not at the time know the nature or quality of the act, did not know what he was doing was wrong and could not refrain from committing the act.
The expert witness found that Henry McGowan was suffering from an acute psychotic episode and meets the criteria for a special verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity under the Criminal Law Insanity Act 2006.
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McGowan (31), with an address at Clinton Street, Brooklyn, New York, US, has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to the murder of John McGowan (66) at Ballyfin Demesne, Ballyfin, Portlaoise, Co Laois, on November 12th, 2024.
The trial has heard that John McGowan travelled to Ireland from the US on a “mission of mercy” to look after his son after phone communication with Henry McGowan caused “considerable concern for his welfare”.
The jury has heard that the accused described “in detail” how he strangled his father with his bare hands in a changing area off the pool, putting a “full fist into his throat”, just over an hour after arriving at Ballyfin Demesne.
Monks said Henry McGowan fell under the care of psychiatric professionals with an involuntary admission at the Mount Sinai Hospital in New York in January 2022, when he had his first “manic episode”, where psychosis was observed along with depression and suicidal ideation.
He was treated, and his mental state improved by the time of his discharge in February 2022.
However, in March 2022 he was involuntarily detained as part of a psychiatric admission for four weeks at Sainte-Anne’s hospital in Paris after suffering persistent paranoid delusions on a flight from the US.
Monks stated that the accused expressed a belief to his sister upon discharge from Mount Sinai that his father was not his real father and that two of his siblings had “evil” in their eyes. “The beliefs about his father when the accused was unwell dated right back to his first admission,” said the witness.
In October 2024, the accused’s mother accompanied her son to Italy as part of his trip to Europe and found him very manic. Over the next few weeks, the accused started sending text messages back home which became increasingly concerning, indicating he was unwell, said the witness.
Monks said that in early November 2024 the accused went to Paris, where the accused said every interaction felt like a communication from God and that he believed he was on a mission to free the world from evil.
At the same time, the accused’s family were trying to formulate a plan to get him to return to the US. The defendant’s sister told the witness there was no history of violence between Henry McGowan and her father, and their relationship was always close.
Monks said in his interviews with the patient that he described persecutory delusions leading up to November 12th and impulsive behaviour such as buying a conspicuous pink coat in Harrods and renting a Lamborghini in Paris.
The accused told the witness that he had feelings of his father not being his real father on November 12th, and described delusional ideas where his father was an imposter. The defendant said: “I thought it like I was ordained by God to kill my father, like he was a source of evil.”
He said the accused was in a profoundly psychotic mental state and believed his father was part of the “conspiracy”, that the deceased had been replaced by an evil impostor and that the defendant was ordained by God to kill the impostor.
The trial has heard that the accused presented himself at the Mater hospital early on the morning of November 12th seeking help. Brendan Grehan, prosecuting counsel, said nobody in the Mater was made aware of the serious episode which occurred on a flight to Paris in March 2022 and caused the accused to be retained in a Paris institution for a month.
Counsel said the accused had made several attempts to seize an infant in a bassinet on the flight and had approached the parents on two occasions insisting on taking the child so that everyone could be cleared from evil.
Monks agreed the accused was not a violent person, did not have a temper, got on well with his father, and that “no one could have foreseen what happened” in Co Laois that night.
The trial continues before Mr Justice Paul McDermott and a jury of six men and six women.
