Yusif Ali Abdi pleads not guilty to murder charge

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

Yusif Ali Abdi was on trial at the Central Criminal Court charged with murdering his 20-month-old son, Nathan Baraka Andrew Ali, at The Elms, College Road, Clane, Co Kildare, on 17 April 2001. He pleaded not guilty. The proceedings were reported on 10 December 2019.

His wife, Amanda Bailey, told the jury that the way her husband had been treated was “beyond cruel” and that no one deserved to suffer as he had. She said he had adored their son.

Prosecuting counsel Seamus Clarke SC said Mr Abdi had been convicted of murder by a 10 to two majority in May 2003. That conviction was quashed, and in February 2019 the Court of Appeal ordered a retrial based on newly discovered facts.

Mr Clarke said Mr Abdi had been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia in 2013 after being brought to the Central Mental Hospital on several occasions. Dr Damian Mohan, who had given evidence for the prosecution at the 2003 trial that he did not believe Mr Abdi was suffering from paranoid schizophrenia, now believed he had shown early signs of the condition in 2001. Mr Clarke said the jury would hear evidence that Mr Abdi was legally insane in 2001.

The trial was continuing before Mr Justice Alexander Owens and a jury.