Man who chased women on street while naked, with the intention of raping one, pleads insanity
A bizarre chain of events saw a man strip naked and chase three women in Cork city, sexually assaulting one of the women at the door of her apartment where it was his intention to rape her.
Those facts were presented by Detective Sergeant Kieran O’Sullivan at Cork Circuit Criminal Court where the 24-year-old defendant went on trial on multiple charges including sexual assault and three counts related to exposing himself to women and masturbating in public.
When arraigned he replied: “Not guilty by reason of insanity,” to all of the charges and he was put on trial in front of Judge Brian O’Callaghan and a jury of five women and seven men heard the case against him.
The jury will resume their deliberations tomorrow.
The facts in relation to what happened at lunchtime on January 12 in and around an apartment building in Cork city were not in dispute.
The question the jury had to decide was whether or not he was suffering from insanity at the time and was thereby not guilty by reason of insanity.
The defence called Dr Francis John Kelly, consultant forensic psychiatrist, who concluded that the accused was driven by a functioning mental disorder at the time of the incidents.
He said he was aware that while the defendant was in custody in the period after his arrest for these offences, he stripped naked on the landing of the prison on a number of occasions, putting himself at some vulnerability.
The psychiatrist said he did respond well to anti-psychotic medication. He concluded that the defendant was suffering the mental disorder of psychosis during the incident in January.
Witness for the prosecution, Dr Brenda Wright, consultant forensic psychiatrist, said: “In my view he was psychotic at the time of the alleged offences.”
The defendant was charged with sexually assaulting a woman at an apartment building in Cork city, on January 12. Det. Sgt O’Sullivan said the defendant grabbed the woman’s breasts and vagina area when the woman was fully dressed at her front door.
She struggled to get out of her apartment to safety as the defendant tried to drag her in. He said later to gardaí that his intention was to rape her in the apartment.
He was also charged with attempting to enter an apartment at that location as a trespasser to commit an arrestable offence, to wit sexual assault.
On the charge of exposure contrary to the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act, it stated that he did “remove all of his clothing in the presence of two females unknown to him and while exposing his penis to these females did chase them into their apartment building.”
A further charge of exposure stated that he did, “while naked and exposing his penis, chase a female unknown to him as she was leaving her home and attempted to follow her into her house.”
