The trial of a man accused of murdering a Garda in Roscommon two years ago has been told it would be highly unfair to convict him of murder.
Stephen Silver is on trial for the capoital murder of Detective Garda Colm Horkan and denies murder, but has pleaded guilty to Manslaughter by reason of diminished responsibility
Barrister Roisin Lacey, told the jury it 'would be highly unfair to convict Mr silver of capital murder or any alternative murder' and championed the work of her own psychiatric expert witness, Dr Brenda Wright, over the prosecution's Professor Henry Kennedy. Ms Lacey compared the two reports and highlighted what she claimed were shortcomings in Professor Kennedy's report. These included questioning the Professor's statement that there was no question of paranoia or delusion, with such conditions required to be consistent and fixed. The defence highlighted to the jury that Dr Wright refused this statement, referring to her evidence that 'there can't be this mathematical rigidity to these terms' and that 'just because someone behaves in a purposeful way, you can't simply infer from that, the person had capacity.'
The defence also branded the prosecution as 'disingenuous' for stating that Mr Silver should have been raising his current defence two years earlier either on the side of the road or in the Garda Station. She finished her address to the jury reminding them of the evidence given by the accused's sister last week where she said a phone call with her brother the day before the shooting had raised a a number of red flags regarding his mental state.
Mr Justice Paul McDermott will begin his instructions to the jury tomorrow morning at the Central Criminal Court in Dublin.
