Paul Henry wins appeal over insanity murder acquittal

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

Paul Henry successfully appealed his acquittal for murder by reason of insanity at the Court of Appeal, which ordered a retrial. The proceedings were reported on 1 May 2015.

The murder charge concerned his mother, Ann Henry, at The Spinney, Abbeystown, Roscommon, in September 2011. He had pleaded not guilty.

A jury acquitted him by reason of insanity at a Castlebar sitting of the Central Criminal Court. Mr Justice Paul Carney sent him to the Central Mental Hospital on 7 May 2014.

He sought a retrial so he could plead to and be convicted of manslaughter by reason of diminished responsibility, receiving a determinate sentence instead of remaining under an indefinite regime at the Central Mental Hospital, potentially for the rest of his life. The Director of Public Prosecutions sought to have the insanity verdict upheld.

The Court of Appeal found an “element of misdirection” by the trial judge to the jury. Mr Justice George Birmingham, sitting with Mr Justice Garrett Sheehan and Mr Justice John Edwards, ordered the retrial. The court heard that the case would be listed for retrial in the Central Criminal Court in two weeks.