A man pleaded guilty to manslaughter following the death of an elderly patient at Cavan General Hospital's psychiatric unit in June 2011. Ian Harman, aged 50, from Cootehill, County Cavan, initially denied murdering Michael Treanor, aged 82, but accepted the lesser charge at the Central Criminal Court in July 2014 on grounds of diminished responsibility under the Criminal Law Insanity Act. The prosecution established that Harman used a belt and pillow to kill Mr Treanor, who suffered from dementia. The defence argued that abrupt withdrawal of anti-psychotic medication caused Harman to experience a mental disorder affecting his culpability. At a sentencing hearing in October 2014, the deceased's nephew delivered a victim impact statement expressing concern that the legal system had favoured the defendant. Justice Garrett Sheehan remanded Harman in custody pending sentencing.
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Original report plus public source leads and related archive reports used for review context.
Public source leads
- Man jailed for eight years for killing psychiatric patient at Cavan General Hospital - RTE.ie RTE.ie · Mon, 13 Oct 2014 07:00:00 GMT
- Cavan man who killed fellow patient 'insane from drug withdrawal' - Irish Examiner Irish Examiner · Wed, 16 Jul 2014 07:00:00 GMT
- Man sentenced to eight years for Cavan psychiatric unit killing - The Irish Times The Irish Times · Mon, 13 Oct 2014 07:00:00 GMT
- Man admits killing at Cavan psychiatric unit - RTE.ie RTE.ie · Wed, 09 Jul 2014 07:00:00 GMT
- Man who killed fellow patient in psychiatric unit gets eight years - Irish Independent Irish Independent · Tue, 14 Oct 2014 07:00:00 GMT
- Family of man strangled in hospital claims 'bias' - Irish Independent Irish Independent · Mon, 06 Oct 2014 07:00:00 GMT
- Psychiatric patient accused of murder told nurse he 'did a bad thing', court told - Irish Independent Irish Independent · Thu, 10 Jul 2014 07:00:00 GMT
- Jailed for eight years for killing elderly man on psych unit - Anglo Celt Anglo Celt · Mon, 13 Oct 2014 07:00:00 GMT
Related court reports
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