Laura Kenna trial hears conflicting psychiatric evidence

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

Laura Kenna was on trial at the Central Criminal Court, charged with the attempted murder of Fionnuala Bourke on Lower Drumcondra Road, Dublin 9, on 3 January 2017. She was also charged with assault intending to cause serious harm.

Kenna pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to both counts. The proceedings were reported on 18 October 2018.

Opening the case on 16 October, prosecuting counsel Anthony Sammon SC said Kenna’s state of mind was the central issue. He told the jury that Bourke was attacked with a knife while walking home from work and suffered severe facial scarring.

On 18 October, defence counsel Barry White SC called consultant forensic psychiatrist Dr Stephen Monks. He said Kenna had schizophrenic affective disorder, with psychotic delusions and hallucinations. Under cross-examination by Sammon, Monks said she had experienced delusions about killing people for a long time before the Bourke attack and was allegedly killing someone for a purpose unrelated to stealing a handbag.

Monks also described an attack two weeks earlier in which Kenna stabbed a woman in the face with a pen on a Luas tram. He said Kenna believed the woman had been talking about her, although she most likely had said nothing. After her release from Garda custody, Kenna said she believed she would be eaten and would not survive unless she killed someone, and that voices were urging her to kill.

Prosecution psychiatrist Professor Harry Kennedy agreed with Monks on the diagnosis but said Kenna knew what she was doing in the Bourke attack and was not entitled to an insanity verdict. He said Kenna had obtained a knife to rob someone and, in his view, the demand for Bourke’s bag was unrelated to delusion.

Kennedy distinguished the earlier Luas attack, saying a previous jury had returned a verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity. He cited independent evidence that Kenna was responding to hallucinations during that assault.

The trial continued before Mr Justice Robert Eagar, with closing speeches still to be heard.