A woman who stabbed her 76-year-old mother to death in the belief she was the devil just five days after she was released from psychiatric care has been found not guilty of murder by reason of insanity.
and was detained 16 times under the Mental Health Act prior to the killing. The one-day trial at the Central Criminal Court, which Mr Justice Paul McDermott called "stark and deeply tragic", heard a bloodstained Ms Bergin was found naked on a Dublin street after fatally stabbing her mother in the head and neck. She told a garda at the scene: "I killed my mother, I killed her, she is inside covered in blood.”
The jury of six men and six women spent one hour and seven minutes deliberating on Wednesday before bringing in a unanimous verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity. Psychiatrist Dr Stephen Monks, called by the defence, said the defendant was suffering from bipolar Type 1 disorder, which he said was a mental illness. He said this included episodic mood disorders and could be accompanied by psychotic symptoms such as delusions and hallucinations.