The jury in the inquest of university student Shane Clancy, who stabbed his love rival 19 times before killing himself, has returned an open verdict.
The inquest heard Clancy, from Dalkey in south Dublin, was upset following a break-up with his ex-girlfriend Jennifer Hannigan last May.
Within weeks of being prescribed selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) Cipramil, the final year Trinity College Dublin student had already tried to kill himself through an overdose.
After telling a GP about the suicide attempt, he was given a repeat prescription and one week later carried out a frenzied knife attack on Hannigan, her new boyfriend Sebastian Creane, and his brother Dylan Creane.
Ms Hannigan (22), said from the day she told Clancy about her new relationship he immediately became jealous and changed the way he walked, talked and carried himself.
On the night of the attack on August 15th, 2009, Clancy ended up in the company of his Sebastian Creane, a 22-year-old art and design student from Bray, Co Wicklow, through mutual friends at a pub in Dalkey.
Sebastian Creane’s friend Gareth Cahill said Clancy was acting strange all night and although he wasn’t drinking he was hitting the kerb when he drove the friends home. He told the hearing that Clancy insisted leaving him and his brother Ross off first and he got the impression he wanted to be alone with Sebastian Creane.
During the car journey, Sebastian Creane wrote a message on his phone and showed it to him which read: “He now knows where I live, he’ll have an axe murderer after me.”
Ross Cahill, Sebastian Creane’s best friend, said he became worried after they got out of the car and texted him to warn him of his suspicions.
Sebastian Creane invited his killer into his home for tea, but in text messages to his girlfriend said he got scared and asked him to leave when Clancy asked for scissors or a knife to fix his shoes.
CCTV footage shows Clancy went to a 24-hour Dunnes Stores supermarket where he bought a block of five knives at around 4.20am.
In the meantime, Ms Hannigan had taken a taxi to her new boyfriend’s home in Bray, where she got a message from Clancy which read “Jen, I did something stupid and I’m going to die now.”
The inquest heard that after a few phone calls, Clancy arrived at the front door and began stabbing Sebastian Creane, who was heard shouting: “Run, Jen, run.”
Clancy broke into the living room where Ms Hannigan was trying to shield herself, punched and kicked her before driving the knife so hard into her back that the blade broke off and became lodged.
When Sebastian Creane’s brother Dylan came down from upstairs, where he was sleeping with his girlfriend, Clancy turned the knife on him before going into the back garden and stabbing himself to death.
Sebastian Creane died on the floor of his parents' bedroom after climbing upstairs, while his brother and Ms Hannigan survived.
Assistant State pathologist Dr Declan Gilsenan said Clancy was found crouching on his knees, with his head almost touching the ground in a pool of blood that had soaked into the earth and filled a nearby red plastic box. He had several blade wounds to his upper chest and died when the knife plunged into his heart.
Clancy had 3.1mg of Cipramil in his blood, which was around 15 times the upper therapeutic dose and at a level described as between toxic and lethal.
But Professor David Healy, a former secretary of the British Association of Psychopharmacology based at the University of Cardiff, said toxicology tests were “unreliable” in the case of SSRIs. The doctor said different people break down the drugs at different rates.
While “extraordinarily rare”, such SSRIs can spark suicidal or homicidal reactions and the initial suicide attempt by Clancy suggested the drug was not suited to him, he said.
The inquest jury at Wicklow Courthouse rejected an option of death by suicide and returned an open verdict, and that Clancy had died by self-inflicted injuries.
Outside, a solicitor for the Clancy family said the verdict showed the murder-suicide was not intended and was out of character. They called for patients prescribed SSRIs to be screened during early stages of medication.
In a statement this evening, Lundbeck, which manufacures Cipramil, also known as citalopram, denied that the drug may have caused Clancy’s behaviour.
“Extensive scientific studies have shown that there is no evidence linking citalopram to violent behaviour,” it said. “There are trials which show that citalopram has the potential to reduce, rather than provoke, irritability, aggression and violent behaviour.
“Depression is associated with an increased risk of suicide and this may be particularly evident in the early stages of treatment,” it said. “A review of all available data for citalopram … shows no increased risk of suicide.
Citalopram has been used in an estimated 130 million patients worldwide.