A MAN was remanded in custody yesterday for psychiatric assessments after a court heard he lashed out and stabbed a young woman on the head because "voices" told him to kill her.
Immediately after the unprovoked attack near Phibsboro Post Office in Dublin, James Mansfield dropped the knife and went to Mountjoy Garda station to confess.
He was a former psychiatric patient and had 35 convictions for drunkenness and public order offences, Sgt Morgan Martin told Mr Tom O'Connell, prosecuting.
Mansfield (44), of no fixed address, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to assaulting the woman occasioning her actual bodily harm, on March 20th 1996.
Sgt Martin said the victim's injuries, which required one stitch were considered, slight, but she was still suffering psychological trauma and had, difficulty speaking about the incident. She had only recently resumed working.
Judge Joseph Mathews remanded Mansfield in custody to February 28th to allow him to be assessed in the Central Mental Hospital.