A teenager who choked a Cork girl to death suffers from brain damage that was not recognised by hospital doctors, a consultant psychiatrist has told a murder trial.
Dr Brian Caffrey said doctors in the Mercy Hospital, Cork, failed to make adequate follow-ups after the accused, Mr Jonathan Kepple, was treated for head injuries when he was six years old.
The Central Criminal Court was told that in 1987 Mr Kepple was taken to the hospital after he fell off the back of a lorry and was hit by a passing car.
Dr Caffrey said a doctor in the hospital had incorrectly recorded that there had been no witnesses to the accident and that Mr Kepple had been conscious afterwards. A consultant paediatrician in the hospital had also failed to make adequate check-ups, Dr Caffrey said.
Mr Kepple (19), of Bence House, Deptford, London, agrees that he killed Ms Rachel Sandyman (17) on waste ground in Mahon, Cork city on February 5th, 2000, but has pleaded not guilty to murder.