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A Dublin solicitor who stabbed his father 27 times during what psychiatrists described as a psychotic relapse has been found not guilty by reason of insanity. The Central Criminal Court jury returned the special verdict after hearing medical evidence that the man was unfit to be held legally responsible for the killing.
Verdict and court reaction
The accused, 31-year-old Dáire McCormack George, was formally acquitted of murder on the grounds of insanity following a short trial at the Central Criminal Court. Judge Eileen Creedon described the case as “sad and difficult” and thanked jurors for their service.
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After the verdict, family members embraced and exchanged handshakes with both prosecution and defence lawyers. The judge remanded McCormack George to the Central Mental Hospital until 13 August, when a treating doctor will set out the psychiatric care he will require.
What happened on December 12, 2024
Prosecution evidence said the victim, 76-year-old Scott George, was killed at his home at Drumans End, Tobersool, Balbriggan on 12 December 2024. Detective Garda Ultan McElroy gave a timeline in court: after finishing work at the solicitor firm Mason Hayes & Curran in Dublin city, McCormack George returned to his Cabra apartment, picked up two knives and drove to his parents’ home.
At about 11pm that night he rang his sister, Hillary, and told her he had killed their father. Hillary and their mother, Goretti, arrived around 12 minutes later and found McCormack George with blood on his clothes; he repeated that he had killed their father.
Mental-health evidence
Medical testimony established that McCormack George had been diagnosed with a mental-health disorder in 2018 and had previously responded well to treatment. The court heard his symptoms relapsed after a reduction in antipsychotic medication.
Entries in a personal journal produced to psychiatrists reportedly showed he had developed a delusion that his frail, housebound father was planning to kill his mother and sister. During the attack, McCormack George told psychiatrists his father told him he loved him, “but he ‘just kept stabbing him’.”
Interviews and the defendant’s account
In three interviews at Balbriggan Garda Station the night of the killing and the following day, McCormack George said: ‘Yes, I killed him, but I don’t consider myself guilty of a crime. I love my mother and sister, nothing matters more than them.’
He also told officers he had suffered a nervous breakdown the previous summer after attending Oxford University, where he felt he had overestimated his abilities. He said he had not been sleeping, believed his father intended to harm his mother and sister, and that he ‘just lost it’. In a later interview he reflected: ‘I thought I was doing the right thing, but I made it much worse.’
Legal basis for the special verdict
Both the defence and prosecution invited the jury to return the special verdict after two psychiatrists concluded that, as a result of his mental disorder, McCormack George should not be held criminally responsible. The jury accepted their evidence.
With the jury discharged, the court will now rely on medical supervision and review while the Central Mental Hospital determines the appropriate course of treatment.
