A DONEGAL man was jailed for life yesterday for murdering a 13 year-old girl who died from injuries caused by large stones dropped on her head.
Patrick Granaghan (36), of Drumacrin Road, Bundoran, told gardai he had tried to rape the girl, then tried to strangle her with a scarf before throwing stones at her head. After one hour and 40 minutes, a jury of nine men and three women found Granaghan guilty of murdering the girl on April 14th, 1996.
Mr Justice Carney said. "The accused is sentenced to imprisonment for life." The jury had a "particularly unpleasant" case to deal with and he exempted members from jury service for life, he added. He refused leave to appeal but granted legal aid in the event of an appeal.
Mr Paul O'Higgins SC, prosecuting, said he had no instructions relating to a second count of attempted rape. Mr Justice Carney said he would put the matter in for mention on May 6th.
During the five day trial five psychiatrists agreed Granaghan suffered from schizophrenia.
The trial also heard that Granaghan resisted medical treatment and was described as dangerous. Four psychiatrists including Dr Charles Smith, the medical director of the Central Mental Hospital, testified that the alleged attempted rape and killing were probably driven by illness.
Dr Art O'Connor, a forensic psychiatrist, disagreed. He accepted Granaghan was mentally ill but thought he killed the girl because his alleged attempt to sexually assault her had failed.
The State Pathologist, Dr John Harbison, said the girl died of multiple skull fractures consistent with the dropping of large stones on her head. He also concluded she had been sexually assaulted.
Mr Justice Carney told the jury that "diminished responsibility" was a verdict which did not apply in this jurisdiction and legislators had not yet updated the laws applicable.
He said the laws applying in the case were formulated in the early 19th century, although in the past 30 years there had been a new strand in Irish law which allowed a guilty but insane verdict if, because of a disease of the mind, the person accused was judged to be incapable of exercising free will.
The girl died after she agreed to go for a walk with Granaghan on April 14th last year. Her parents were worried when their daughter did not return. They called gardai about 9 p.m. and it was quickly established that the child had been seen with Granaghan. When gardai entered the man's house, they found him sitting in the dark.
Initially be said he had not seen the child but shortly afterwards he directed a Garda car to the field where her body lay.
In his statement to the gardai, Granaghan said he asked her to go for a walk with him. She eventually agreed to walk out in the country.
Along the route, Granaghan said he decided to have sex with her and persuaded her to go into a field. She screamed and said she would tell her daddy about him and he got nervous.
He said the girl had said/ "You are going to kill me." He took a scarf and tried to strangle her. He said in his statement she "took a long time to die" and he lifted her over to a ditch where he could see she was still breathing. He then took a stone and dropped it on her head. When she was dead Granaghan said he felt "relief" that it was over.
He did not know why he killed the child. He said he was sorry "it happened in that way" and hoped the girl's parents could forgive him.
Mr Martin Granaghan said his brother, Patrick, was admitted to hospital for psychiatric assessment twice in 1995. The first time, he spent three weeks in St Columba's Hospital before being released. He was admitted again in late 1995 after Martin Granaghan and his wife Kathleen brought him to a doctor and he was released on January 23rd, 1996.
Mr Martin Granaghan said in 1986 his brother had begun talking to him about "warnings in his head" and by 1995 he was getting stranger.
After an incident in 1995 when Patrick broke into a local house the court on that occasion had been anxious for a psychiatric assessment and he had been admitted for that reason to St Columba's Hospital.
On his release from hospital in summer 1995 Patrick Granaghan left Bundoran and wandered around Ireland. He stayed in hostels and occasionally slept rough.
When he returned in December 1995 he was in a rough state and was fairly depressed, his brother said. From January to April 1996 his behaviour remained unchanged.
Dr O'Connor of the Central Mental Hospital accepted Granaghan was mentally ill but said he was also capable of committing a serious crime.
He believed Granaghan had committed such a crime on the day of the child's death. He believed Granaghan knew what he was doing at the time of the alleged sexual assault and killing, that he knew it was wrong and that he could have stopped himself at any time.
"It was a criminal killing," he said. "He had a choice. He could have stopped if he wanted to."
Dr O'Connor agreed Granaghan suffered from schizophrenia and that the disease had been present for some time. He said there was no special connection between schizophrenia and sexual crimes.
Dr O'Connor said it was his view the killing was related to a rape which went wrong because the girl struggled too much and threatened to tell her father and anger on Granaghan's part because be could not get an erection.
Dr Harry Kennedy, a clinical psychiatrist at Camelot Lodge, North London Medium Secure Unit, told the jury he had twice examined Granaghan and concluded he suffered from paranoid schizophrenia, accompanied by persecutory delusions.
His actions of attempting to rape and then of killing the child were dictated by his delusions, Dr Kennedy said. He believed Granaghan was incapable of refraining from acting on the delusions and would also have been incapable of exercising free will in regard to them.
Dr Smith said it was unreasonable not to regard the killing as illness driven. All evidence pointed to "rampant active illness in Granaghan at the time. It was reasonable to have some doubts about connecting the alleged attempted rape with schizophrenia. He was conscious of an illness pattern over a lifetime rather than over his period of admission to the CMH.