A North Co Dublin man who claims slimming tablets made him think he was a US army commander has apologised for holding a journalist and his wife hostage in their home. "I'm really very sorry. It's off the wall. There's no explanation for it", Mr Damien Rankin, a telecommunications wholesaler, told a jury at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.
He said he was on a course of Vigeuer Fit slimming tablets at the time. He did not know that they contained a substance called pseudo-ephedrine and he had not adhered to a health leaflet which came with the tablets.
Mr Rankin (32), of Channel Road, Rush, Co Dublin, has pleaded not guilty to assault and false imprisonment of the former Evening Press/Evening Herald journalist, the late Michael O'Toole, and his wife, Maureen, and causing criminal damage to their home at Strand Road, Portmarnock, on March 31st, 1999.
He agreed that the events outlined by gardai had occurred, but claims that he was in a temporary psychotic state brought on by the slimming tablets, combined with Red Bull and large amounts of alcohol.
Mr Rankin told Mr Hugh Harnett SC, defending, that he had no recollection of breaking into the O'Toole home and telling the occupants that they would be killed as revenge for the Balkans war. He remembered taking five Vigeuer Fit tablets that day and had been drinking later in the evening. He said he woke up the next morning in a Garda cell and was told he had tried to break into two houses before attacking the O'Toole home.
Cross-examined by Mr Fergal Kavanagh, prosecuting, he denied that he was trying to blame everything except himself for his behaviour. He also denied that he was a binge drinker or that he had an unmanageable amount of alcohol on the night he attacked the O'Toole home.
The case continues today.