Laura Kenna jury fails to reach verdict on attempted murder

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

A jury at the Central Criminal Court failed to reach a verdict in Laura Kenna’s trial on 24 October 2018. After approximately four hours and 40 minutes of deliberations, Mr Justice Robert Eagar discharged the jury following a recorded disagreement. The case was put back to November for a possible retrial.

Kenna, then 35 and of no fixed abode, was charged with the attempted murder of civil servant Fionnuala Bourke on Lower Drumcondra Road, Dublin 9, on 3 January 2017, and with assault intending to cause serious harm on the same occasion. She pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to both counts. The proceedings were reported on 24 October 2018.

The jury was told that Bourke was walking home from work when Kenna attacked her with a knife. Prosecuting counsel Anthony Sammon SC said Bourke’s throat was slit and she suffered severe facial scarring. The jury heard conflicting opinions from two Central Mental Hospital consultant psychiatrists about Kenna’s state of mind and whether she was entitled to a special verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity.

Defence psychiatrist Dr Stephen Monks said Kenna was suffering from psychotic delusions at the time, did not know what she was doing and could not stop. In his opinion, she was entitled to the special verdict. He also told the jury that, two weeks before the alleged attempted murder, Kenna had stabbed a woman at a Luas stop with a pen; a jury had returned a verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity for that incident.