Confused attacker believed victims were sex offenders
Two elderly men walking along streets in Cork City in the middle of the day were targeted for violent attacks by a confused man diagnosed with psychosis who believed the strangers might have been sex offenders.
Kyle Duggan, aged 30, of no fixed address, pleaded guilty to two counts of assault causing harm to men in their 70s who were unknown to him.
Garda Brian Barron testified that the first attack happened at 1pm on March 5 this year when a 75-year-old man was standing at the pedestrian crossing by the Gate cinema in Cork.
“He was struck in the back in a kind of rugby tackle that knocked him on to the road,” said Gda Barron. “Kyle Duggan left the scene and the assault was not reported immediately. The injured party was brought to hospital.
“At 2.40pm on the same day, a 73-year-old man at Cornmarket St was assaulted when — without any conversation or engagement — Kyle Duggan struck him in the face with a head-butt.”
The man in the Cornmarket St assault sustained three fractures to his cheebones.
Again after this assault, Duggan ran away from the scene.
“His reasons were hard enough to follow,” said Gda Barron. “They were a bit all over the place. There was no rational reason for the assaults. He agreed they were completely unprovoked.
“The explanation he gave was bizarre — that they were older men and more likely to be sex offenders.”
Dermot Sheehan, defending, said, “The behaviour was not normal, not rational.”
Judge Seán Ó Donnabháin noted the link made in the psychiatric report between psychosis and sleep deprivation.
“It might be useful as an academic exercise for some consultant psychiatrist but it is of very little use to the court,” he said.
Judge Ó Donnabháin said the psychiatrist’s explanation for the attacks was lack of sleep.
Gda Barron said: “The most concerning thing for the gardaí was the calculated search for how he chose the victims. He [the defendant] said that they were more vulnerable when they were elderly and less likely to fight back.”
Mr Sheehan said the accused had been prescribed anti-psychotic medication but was unable to access medicine at the time because of his homelessness and chaotic lifestyle.
Judge Ó Donnabháin echoed Gda Barron’s concern about the manner in which victims were identified and picked out for violence.
The judge removed the suspension of an 18-month sentence hanging over the accused and effectively remanded Duggan in custody until November 6, 2019, for sentencing on the two charges of assault causing harm.
