A care assistant has told the Central Criminal Court of the moment she entered the home of her vulnerable and partially blind client to find him covered in blood and in the company of his brother, who told her he had “drained” his sibling.
Two psychiatrists have told the trial of the 39-year-old attempted murder accused that he was suffering from schizophrenia at the time and fulfils the criteria for a special verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity.
Gary O’Shaughnessy, with an address at Ailesbury House, Lynn Road, Mullingar, Co Westmeath, is charged with the attempted murder of his brother Mark O’Shaughnessy (42) at the same address between May 15th and 16th, 2024.
He is further charged with intentionally or recklessly causing serious harm to his brother on the same date and at the same location. The accused has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to both charges.
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Giving evidence, care assistant Louise McGloin told prosecuting barrister Ronan Kennedy that she had been caring for Mark O’Shaughnessy, whom she described as vulnerable and partially blind, for the past six years.
When she arrived at Ailesbury House on May 16th, McGloin saw blood “all over the walls and floor” and panicked. When she looked into the sittingroom, she saw the accused sitting up on a couch.
When she asked Gary what he had done with his brother Mark, the accused replied: “We are evil, I drained him of his blood,” before laying back down on the couch.
McGloin then saw Mark on a couch behind the door and said he was covered in blood. “I thought he was dead,” she said.
The witness said she shouted at the accused, “What did you do?” before going outside to get help as she was frightened by a hammer she had seen on the floor. She described Mark as very quiet and said he “wouldn’t hurt a fly”.
Paramedic Gary Finley said he found Mark O’Shaughnessy in a critical state, lying on a two-seater sofa. He said Mark had a catastrophic haemorrhage from a significant injury to his neck. “We thought he was going to die in the house when we were going to move him,” he said.
In his interviews at Mullingar Garda station on May 24th, Gary O’Shaughnessy told officers he started to “feel off” in January 2024, was drinking heavily and began to hear voices. The accused said he was slowly losing his mind and had been drinking “thousands of beers”. He said he had also started getting thoughts of killing his brother.
The defendant said he remembered getting a hammer and had asked his brother Mark to come downstairs to watch the football. He told gardaí he had hit Mark on the side of the head five times with a hammer and also tried to slash his own wrists.
When asked what were his thoughts when he hit Mark with the hammer, the accused said: “I don’t know, then I thought to kill him, then thought to kill myself, thought he dead then started moving around.”
Asked to explain the cuts to Mark’s body, the accused said: “I must have done it. I was over at him to slit his wrists and neck, then I began hallucinating and could see the whole side of his neck coming off and thought it not possible.” He said he had used a retractable-blade Stanley knife “for cutting lino”.
He said voices had told him to kill his brother, and “they said it would take 400 belts of a hammer to kill him”.
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Consultant forensic psychiatrist Dr Michael Isaac told defending barrister Dara Foynes via video-link that he had prepared a report for the defence after assessing the accused. He considered Gary O’Shaughnessy to be insane at the time of the offence.
The expert witness said the accused told him he was diagnosed with schizophrenia in 2015 and had stopped taking his medication about five months before the offence. He said Gary O’Shaughnessy told him he was first admitted to a psychiatric unit in 2015 after experiencing auditory hallucinations.
Isaac said the accused suffers from schizophrenia, which is a mental disorder within the meaning of the Criminal Law Insanity Act 2006. He found that the accused did not know the nature and quality of the act and could not refrain from committing it.
Consultant forensic psychiatrist Dr Mark Joynt, who was called by the prosecution, told Kennedy he had interviewed the accused on two occasions via video-link in September 2025.
The witness said the accused’s first contact with mental health services was in 2015, when he was admitted to St Loman’s in Mullingar. He said this was the first of several admissions over a number of years.
Joynt said the accused told him he was watching football with his brother when he experienced voices telling him that he and his brother were cursed and he should kill Mark by hitting him six times with a hammer.
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He said the accused told him he had stopped taking his medication three months before the incident.
Joynt said the most appropriate diagnosis for the accused is paranoid schizophrenia, which is characterised by delusions, hallucinations and thought disorder. He also diagnosed the defendant with comorbid alcohol dependency.
He said the accused did not know what he was doing was wrong and was unable to refrain from committing the act.
The trial continues before Mr Justice Tony Hunt.
