A YOUNG Cavan man accused of murdering his father suffers from a disorder that results in a callous lack of concern for the feelings of others, a psychiatrist has told the Central Criminal Court.
Seamus Fitzgerald (21) has pleaded not guilty to murdering his father, James Fitzgerald (56), in Lisgar, Bailieborough, Co Cavan, on January 8th, 2006.
It is the prosecution’s case that Mr Fitzgerald strangled his father in the kitchen, dragged his body through a hallway to his bedroom, attempted unsuccessfully to take it out the window, and then dragged his father’s body back to the hallway, before stabbing him.
Dr Damian Mohan, a consultant forensic psychiatrist at the Central Mental Hospital, Dublin, told the jury that Mr Fitzgerald suffers from anti-social personality disorder (ASPD), where there is “callous unconcern for the feelings of others and a lack a guilt”. Dr Mohan said this “does not mean that an individual who suffers from ASPD does not know what he or she is doing . . . It is a behavioural disorder where responsibility for actions remains intact.
“There is a disregard for social rules and norms but it doesn’t mean that they don’t understand the difference between right and wrong, but they disregard it.”
He said Mr Fitzgerald had a long history of drug abuse. “He began sniffing glue at the age of 10, cannabis when he was 11 or 12. He took ecstasy at weekends and smoked heroin from time to time.”
Dr Mohan said Mr Fitzgerald told him he was “possessed and had a history of seeing ghosts”. He added his own view of this was that it was “unreliable.”
“One of the key features of anti-social personality disorder is deception,” he said.
Dr Mohan told the jury that his opinion was that Mr Fitzgerald “suffers from a mental disorder within the meaning of the Criminal Law Insanity Act, which is a broad definition”.
He told the court he had watched a video of Mr Fitzgerald’s Garda interviews and they were “not a presentation of somebody who was seriously mentally ill”.
Dr Mohan told the jury that Mr Fitzgerald told him he went to where there were no gardaí after the alleged murder. He said that indicated the accused “knew what he’d done was legally wrong”.
The trial continues.