A DONEGAL man who killed his parents with an axe but was found not guilty of murder by reason of insanity has been committed to a psychiatric hospital.
The bodies of Kathleen (73) and James (77) Cuddihy were found with multiple wounds at the family home in Churchtown, Carndonagh in October 2014.
Julian Cuddihy (43), who suffers from paranoid schizophrenia, believed that by killing them he was sending them to heaven.
Ms Justice Margaret Heneghan said on Monday she was satisfied he was suffering from a mental disorder and ordered his committal to the Central Mental Hospital in Dublin for inpatient care and treatment.
His trial heard that in his 20s and 30s Mr Cuddihy had a successful career that brought him to the UK and America, but he began suffering depression and his condition deteriorated to the point that in December 2013 his family considered having him committed involuntarily.
He suffered paranoid delusions, stopped eating at the family home because he believed his mother was trying to poison him, and took to sleeping in an annexe of the house with an axe for protection.
He told psychiatrists after the killings that he heard voices telling him what to do and believed he was going to be taken away by aliens to 'the Matrix', a reference to the Keanu Reeves film in which reality is simulated by a computer.
Two nights before the killings he had stayed out in a field near his parents' home believing that aliens were going to take him away to another dimension.
He said on the night of the attack his mother had told him to eat his dinner but he also heard her voice in his head saying "I want you to kill me and your father".
Later, as he wandered through fields near the house, he became convinced that he was in an alternative reality and had not really killed his parents.
The court heard that six days before the killings, Julian's sisters Maureen and Delilah and brother James had decided it was time to have him committed.
However, an appointment with mental health services was cancelled because their mother was concerned about the stigma and that he would resent his parents for committing him against his will.
The couple suffered multiple wounds to the head from the axe, with Mr Cuddihy also found with stab wounds which may have been caused by a pair of scissors.
A consultant forensic psychiatrist said yesterday that Mr Cuddihy was first admitted to the Central Mental Hospital in Dundrum a week after the killings and has been assessed as suffering from paranoid schizophrenia.
She said the kind of care he needs is available only at the hospital.
Ms Justice Heneghan described the trial as a "difficult case" and said she would like to extend her deepest sympathies to the family, who had conducted themselves "very appropriately".
Siblings Maureen, Delilah and James left the court together soon after the verdicts were read.
