A Dublin man who stabbed his ex-girlfriend to death and seriously injured her mother has been convicted of murder and serious assault and jailed for life by a judge in the Central Criminal Court.
After a majority jury verdict, High Court judge Mr Justice White said he personally regretted that his hands were tied on the issue of sentencing and that he had no choice but to deliver a life sentence. He "advised or directed " that the convicted man, Declan Burke, receive whatever psychiatric help was needed in whatever institution was appropriate.
Declan Burke (29), with a last address on the South Circular Road, Dublin 8, accepted he was responsible for the stabbing his former partner Ms Jennifer Wilkinson (24), at her home in the Rise, Boden Park, Ballyboden, Dublin on December 13th 2000, and causing serious harm to her mother, Mrs Mary Wilkinson, (57), also through stabbing her, but he had pleaded not guilty to two charges of murder and assault causing serious harm.
His defence claimed insanity and/or that he lacked the intention to kill or seriously injure. He also claimed he had no memory of the moments during which the stabbings occurred.
The trial heard that Burke was in the psychiatric unit at St James's Hospital months before the stabbings and that by his own account, he had tried to commit suicide "around 50 or 60 times" in his life. In their childhood, he and his brother and sister had been seriously sexually abused by their father, a convicted abuser.
Declan Burke admitted taking a knife to the scene of the stabbings, along with cable ties and tape, but he claimed they were all implements to assist in his own suicide and that he just wanted to say goodbye to Jennifer first.
Burke is currently on anti-psychotic drugs and Dr Draper told the court that should his "coping mechanism" of denial ever break down, he would be in a "serious psychotic condition".
The jury was directed by trial judge Mr Justice Barry White that there were three possible verdicts on the first charge open to them: murder, manslaughter, or a verdict of guilty but insane, which he told the jury would mean a technical acquittal and an order from him that Burke be sent to the Central Mental Hospital until a future decision by government.
Yesterday, after deliberating for over five hours since Thursday evening, the jury of seven men and five women found Burke guilty on both charges by a majority verdict of 11 to 1.
By a majority, the jury rejected Burke's defence that he was either temporarily insane at the time of the stabbings, or that, in any case, he lacked the capacity to form a rational intent to kill or cause serious injury.
After the verdict, Mr Justice White granted a fifteen-minute adjournment to allow defence lawyer Patrick MacEntee SC to talk to his client. He then imposed the mandatory sentence of life imprisonment for murder.