A Kilkenny man has gone on trial for bludgeoning his mother to death at the family home last year. Niall Stapleton (32) admits killing Siobhan Stapleton (51) at Glebe Lodge, Kilfane, in Thomastown on May 25th 2012 - but denies murder by reason of insanity.
The jury has been told it will hear from two psychiatrists, and that it will have to decide whether the accused man had a mental disorder at the time of the attack that would mean he was not responsible for his actions.
The Central Criminal Court has heard he was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia in 2006, and at one stage believed his mother could read his mind and control him.
He was committed in 2008 but mostly received outpatient treatment.
Opening the case for the prosecution, barrister Michael Delaney SC said there will be evidence Mr. Stapleton had a somewhat poor history of taking his medication.
The jury heard in the week running up to the killing last year, this was a cause of dispute with his parents particularly his mother, Siobhan.
Niall Stapleton told his sister Sinead there were sexual side effects and that there was a conspiracy with the drugs to make money. The defence has made numerous admissions in the case.
Multiple blows to the head
He admits his behaviour got worse around May of last year in that he was talking to himself as if he was having a conversation and laughing out loud for no reason.
At a family barbecue the night before his mother's death, he kept interrupting people and drinking beers but not finishing them.
He was up at 4 or 5am the next morning and again was fidgety and restless. It was a warm day and his mother Siobhan was in good form and singing along to the radio.
Shortly after 1.15pm Niall Stapleton's sister Sinead was on her laptop in the house when she heard a startled gasp from outside. She went out and found her mother lying injured on the ground.
The emergency services were called and Siobhan Stapleton was brought to St. Luke's Hospital for treatment.
She died later that afternoon while being transferred by ambulance to Beaumont Hospital in Dublin. The post mortem concluded that the cause of death was multiple blows to the head from a blunt instrument.
The jury has heard there will be evidence that Niall Stapleton initially claimed that he saw a man in a black t-shirt leaving the scene as his mother was discovered.
He later admitted that he carried out the attack, but the prosecution says it appears he has little recollection of it.
The bloodied handle of a garden fork was found on the premises. The trial is expected to last around three days.
