A Cork woman who told gardaí she killed her daughter because Our Lady told her to has been found not guilty by reason of insanity.
It took the Central Criminal Court jury of seven women and five men 24 minutes today to reach its unanimous verdict, finding Mary Prendergast (49), of Glenna Cottages, Commons Rd, Cork, not guilty by reason of insanity of murdering of Jessica Prendergast (21) at that address on July 29th, 2006.
Ms Prendergast, who has been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, wept as the verdict was read out.
She had told gardaí that Our Lady told her to kill her daughter and that she stabbed her with a knife.
Gardaí found Ms Prendergast’s daughter, Jessica, covered in blood at the foot of the stairs of her home. She had been stabbed 44 times.
During the trial, the court heard that Ms Prendergast had been released from psychiatric treatment at Cork University Hospital 19 days before the killing. She had gone to stay with Jessica and her grandson, who was a year old at the time.
Ms Prendergast told gardaí during interviews that she believed she was “getting messages from Our Lady from the water dripping into the toilet bowl” in the bathroom beside her bedroom.
She said that Our Lady told her to kill Jessica. She went downstairs and got a knife from the kitchen, then returned to bed. “I said to her [Our Lady] when do you want me to do it. She said, ‘I’ll let you know, my love’. At half-five she said, ‘You can do it now’.”
Ms Prendergast went into her daughter’s room and stabbed her in the chest repeatedly.
Ms Prendergast then took Jessica’s son, left the house, and walked to the offices of a taxi company. She passed by the offices a number of times before coming to the hatch and asking for a taxi to the Garda station. There was blood on her face and hair, and on the baby.
One of the men working at the office contacted Mayfield Garda Station.
An ambulance was later called and Ms Prendergast was taken to Mercy Hospital.
Later, while in the hospital, Ms Prendergast was said by gardaí to be in a “shocked state, crying, shaking, grinding her teeth”.
Consultant psychiatrist Dr Brian McCaffrey told the court that Ms Prendergast has had illness of a psychiatric nature for about 19 years and was admitted to psychiatric institutions on seven occasions before the killing.
He diagnosed Ms Prendergast with paranoid schizophrenia with very fixed delusions. “At the time of the events, she was suffering from an exacerbation of symptoms. They were actually worse that night,” he said.
Mr Justice Paul Carney told the jury that these cases are “very distressing.”
Ms Prendergast has been committed to Central Mental Hospital.