Treatment for patients at the Central Mental Hospital is tailored for individual needs, a hospital spokeswoman said yesterday.
For John Gallagher, who has absconded from the hospital, treatment consisted of a halfway-house existence with the outside world as he was expected to be released in less than two years.
Gallagher lived on the hospital grounds in a hostel, formerly the governor's residence, and was in a full-time job. He left the accommodation on Saturday afternoon for a social engagement but never returned.
The hospital stressed yesterday that any patients enjoying this type of freedom had "built up a high level of trust". Gallagher had complied with every part of the phased pre-release programme and was eligible for the lax regime that even allowed him to purchase his own motorcycle this year, said Ms Maureen Brown, of the Eastern Regional Health Authority.
There once was a time when someone committed to the Central Mental Hospital on a guilty but insane verdict simply died inside and was never released, but those days were now gone, said Ms Brown.
Gallagher was found to be guilty but insane in 1989 of the murder of his former girlfriend, Ms Anne Gillespie (18), and her mother, Mrs Annie Gillespie (50).
"We are trying to introduce rehabilitation programmes where people showing no signs of mental illness eventually are eligible for release. Of course, this will occur after long and lengthy treatment," Ms Brown said. John Gallagher was initially diagnosed with a personality disorder characterised by immaturity, impulsiveness and egocentricity. He told psychologists that a traffic accident when he was 13, in which he suffered a severe thigh-bone fracture and was awarded £15,000 compensation, was a turning point in his life.
It is understood he first met Anne Gillespie when she was 14, shortly before he secured the compensation payment. In 1987 he left his job as a mechanic and took up a cleaning job in a clothing store. He later told psychiatrists the women working in the shop teased him about his weight, and this led him to begin taking slimming pills.
He complained of headaches but always stressed that he did not drink at discos. However, he said he had drunk alcohol at a wedding one week before the fatal shootings. Mr Alphonsus Lafferty, a brother of Mrs Annie Gillespie, said yesterday that the Thursday before the shootings Gallagher had threatened the family, and he had reported him to gardai.
According to the ERHA, the Central Mental Hospital houses two main profiles of patients, the guilty but insane and those transferred from prisons who are thought to be suffering from psychological disorders.
Defendants found guilty in the courts can also be sent to the Central Mental Hospital to serve portions of their sentence. A Co Louth man jailed for five years last week for raping his former girlfriend is currently being held there.
The Dublin man who raped and tortured his 14-year-old daughter and mutilated his wife with a saw blade was also sent to the hospital after he was sentenced to 15 years earlier this month.
In May of this year the Supreme Court heard the case of a 17-year-old disturbed teenage girl, who was not suffering from a psychological illness but who was sent to the Central Mental Hospital because there was no other available accommodation. The ERHA yesterday described this as "an isolated case".
Also housed in the hospital are a 21-year-old south Dublin man who carried out two unprovoked knife attacks in the city centre in 1998, and a Co Cavan man who was recently sentenced for strangling his mother in her bed.
A 26-year-old man who spread Internet messages alleging that one of his former teachers was a paedophile received treatment there after he was sentenced. A Mullingar man imprisoned for life for killing two of his neighbours after a series of minor disputes with the couple is also believed to be there.
The hospital, which houses 85 people, has a swimming pool, a gym, woodwork, gardening and horses which are used to provide therapy for patients.
