Gerard Dowling pleads not guilty to attempted murder

This report is a localnews.ie summary based on public court reporting and records; sources are listed below.

Gerard Dowling pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to the attempted murder of Simon Bourke. He also pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to assaulting Mr Bourke causing him harm and producing a knife during the same incident.

The charges concerned an incident at Market Cross Shopping Centre in Kilkenny City on 13 July 2016. The proceedings were reported on 25 October 2017, when the trial was continuing at the Central Criminal Court before Justice Paul McDermott and a jury.

Dr Brenda Wright told defence counsel Colman Cody SC that, after examining Dowling’s history, she found he had been admitted to hospital multiple times because of his diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia. She described symptoms of paranoia and delusion, including beliefs that he was a billionaire who designed airplane engines and had built a stock exchange algorithm.

The report said Dowling had beliefs about his former partner as part of his delusions and sent her multiple threatening text messages in 2015. He was tried at Kilkenny Circuit Court earlier in 2017 as a result of those messages and found not guilty of the charges by reason of insanity.