A Kilkenny man has been committed to the Central Mental Hospital after being found not guilty of trying to murder his sister by reason of insanity.
Daniel O’Connell from Rosemount in Newpark stabbed her when she was six months pregnant because he didn't want her to raise a child in Dublin.
Following Daniel O’Connell’s short trial earlier this month, a jury returned with the special verdict.
They heard he was diagnosed with autism when he was young and had developed a hatred for Dublin and its people during a school trip when he was 13.
The now 33-year-old was upset that his sister had moved to Dublin, married a man from Dublin and was going to have a baby in Dublin.
The court heard he called to her house unannounced in April 2016 and stabbed her four times. She managed to fight him off and raise the alarm.
Experts called on behalf of both the prosecution and the defence agreed he was suffering from a mental disorder at the time and urged the jurors to return the special verdict.
He has spent the past two weeks being assessed in the Central Mental Hospital and it was decided today that he should be committed there for further treatment.
