A judge said she was “completely hamstrung” by the lack of suitable places at the Central Mental Hospital (CMH) for a defendant who was diagnosed with a psychotic illness and was deteriorating in prison.
At Cork Circuit Criminal Court Judge Helen Boyle said there was no mental health bed available for Patrick Sibanyoni (58) even though it was obvious from the accused’s behaviour in court that he was unwell and that prison was not the appropriate place for him.
She reluctantly remanded him in prison to appear before the court on February 16th, when a medically approved officer of the CMH must also attend.
Sibanyoni, with an address at Dundanion Lodge, Blackrock, Co Cork, has been on remand in Cork Prison for the past eight months on 24 charges of causing criminal damage to property and cars in Mallow in May 2025. It is alleged that he caused the damage while he was naked.
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Boyle noted a consultant psychiatrist attending Cork Prison, Prof Gautam Gulati, had assessed Sibanyoni as suffering from a psychotic illness, most likely schizophrenia, which is a mental disorder within the terms of the Mental Health Act 2001.
Defence barrister John Colthurst told the court all was in order legally and judicially to find that his client, a native of Guyana, was unfit to plead and should be sent to the Central Mental Hospital.
Prosecution barrister Imelda Kelly said that, even though the judge agreed Sibanyoni was unfit to plead and directed him to be taken to the Central Mental Hospital, this had not happened. “The CMH was not in a position to give your order effect because of issues of capacity.”
The judge suggested she could remand Sibanyoni on bail on condition he would go to the psychiatric unit at Cork University Hospital (CUH), but Kelly said the State was of the view, given Sibanyoni was found unfit to plead, he could not give an undertaking to comply with any bail conditions.
The judge then wondered if she should simply release the accused without bail conditions in the hope a concerned citizen would make a report out of concern for his welfare and he could be taken into care at CUH. She described this course of action as “clearly not optimal”.
Boyle said she wanted it on the court record that “it is clear Mr Sibanyoni is unwell, he is not disruptive here in court, but he is constantly talking quietly to himself – I am not a psychiatrist, but I have a report before me that says he is in urgent need of medical attention.”
“In these extreme circumstances where the Circuit Court has, yet again, found itself hamstrung, I feel I don’t have any option but to remand him in custody. I want to impress on the director [of the CMH] my deep concerns. We are completely hamstrung,” the judge said.
“I am being asked to remand him in custody when I have a report in front of me that his condition is deteriorating in prison,” said the judge, as she remanded him in prison.
