Man found guilty of cellmate’s manslaughter by reason of diminished responsibility

A mentally ill prisoner who scalded his cellmate with hot water before strangling him has been found not guilty of murder but guilty of manslaughter by reason of diminished responsibility.

The majority verdict in the case of Michael Connolly (55), who was accused of murdering Mark Lawlor (37) at Cloverhill Prison in 2019, was returned after almost 4½ hours of jury deliberations at the Central Criminal Court.

The jury heard that Connolly, originally from Co Louth, believed that Mr Lawlor (37), from Drumcondra in Dublin, had “some kind of exalted identity like a king” and was “a kingpin of Dublin” when he killed him in their cell on November 23rd, 2019.

Connolly accepted that he killed Mr Lawlor but pleaded not guilty to murdering him by reason of insanity. The jury was told that a disagreement on the findings of two psychiatrists regarding the accused man’s state of mind was “the nub of the case”.

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Ms Justice Siobhán Lankford told the jury they had to choose between the expert psychiatric evidence of Dr Stephen Monks and Dr Sally Linehan in order to decide whether the accused was entitled to the special verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity or a verdict of manslaughter by reason of diminished responsibility.

Ms Justice Lankford told the jury on Tuesday afternoon that they did not have to be unanimous in their verdict and the court would accept a majority verdict not below 10-2. The foreperson told the registrar that the verdict was one of a 10-2 majority.

‘Floridly psychotic’

The trial heard evidence from Dr Monks and Dr Linehan that Connolly suffers from paranoid schizophrenia. Dr Monks also said his colleague Dr Brenda Wright said Connolly presented as “floridly psychotic” when she assessed him.

However, while Dr Monks said that the accused did not understand the nature and quality of his actions, Dr Linehan said she did not think he was suffering from his mental illness to such an extent as to bring him within the definition of deserving the special verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity.

At the start of the trial, counsel for the Director of Public Prosecutions, Tony McGillicuddy SC said prisoners in the adjoining cell heard a scuffle and someone calling out “Davey” or “David”. The prisoners thought it was Mr Lawlor and he sounded hoarse, so they thought he was choking.

A prison officer responded and when he looked into the cell, he saw Connolly on top of Mr Lawlor with his hands around his neck.

Garda Inspector Darragh Kenny confirmed to Mr McGillicuddy that a postmortem revealed that Mr Lawlor had sustained multiple superficial burns with blistering on his face, neck and arms, which were consistent with having been scalded by having boiling or hot water thrown at him.

He suffered manual strangulation and straddling of the chest, causing asphyxia leading to death.

Mr McGillicuddy said a psychiatrist found that Connolly had delusional beliefs, including that the prisoners were in league with prison officers in “a homosexual conspiracy”. Counsel said the psychiatrist noted that Connolly had formed the delusional belief that Mr Lawlor had “some kind of exalted identity like a king”.