THE O'Donnell trial was the longest criminal jury trial in the history of the State and is believed to have cost more than £300,000.
There were 82 witnesses, including 13 doctors, psychiatrists and psychologists. More than 2,000 documents were produced.
Brendan O'Donnell testified for five days, and there was almost four weeks of evidence from psychiatrists and psychologists.
The defence experts argued that O'Donnell was suffering from a major mental illness, hebephrenic or disorganised schizophrenia, but the state witnesses said he was suffering from a combination of personality disorders which did not constitute mental illness.
The hearing opened last January 15th and heard seven days of evidence before a lengthy adjournment.
Ms Fiona Sampson captivated the court with cool and precise testimony of how she was abducted from her home, dressed only in a night dress, by O'Donnell on the morning of March 7th, 1994.
She was forced at gunpoint to drive him along country roads until the car went off the road.
Then she and O'Donnell trekked over fields and bog before he was arrested after he hijacked a car.
Ms Sampson said O'Donnell had told her he might have to kill her, but it would be quick.
Farmer Edward Cleary told the trial how he grabbed the barrel of O'Donnell's gun after O'Donnell hijacked his car on a quiet country road near Woodford, Co Galway, early on May 7th.
O'Donnell had forced Mr Cleary to stop at gunpoint and bundled Ms Sampson into the car before getting in himself.
He fired into the roof before Mr Cleary grabbed the gun barrel. The car was eventually surrounded by gardai who dragged O'Donnell out.
O'Donnell's sister, Anne Marie, said Brendan had stabbed her in the knee in late 1992 and she had him committed to a mental hospital in Ballinasloe.
She said there was "absolutely no improvement" in his condition on release from the hospital. In her view he was "still mad".
Ballistics expert Det Sgt Seam us Quinn said Liam Riney (3) died after he was shot in the head. Ms Imelda Riney was shot through the left eye socket, and Fr Joe Walsh was shot in the left side of the head.
The body of Liam Riney was found in Cregg Wood lying across his dead mother.
Both were covered with twigs, small branches and brush. The body of Father Walsh was found 950 feet away.
After seven days of evidence, the hearing was adjourned on January 24th by Mr Justice Lavan to allow the separate hearing of a fitness to plead issue. A separate jury was sworn to decide the issue, and psychiatrists and psychologists called by the defence and prosecution agreed that O'Donnell was fit to plead.
The jury on February 2nd unanimously found O'Donnell was then competent to proceed with his trial.
The state case concluded on March 1st after which the defence opened its case. In his opening speech, Mr Patrick MacEntee urged the jury not to "scapegoat" O'Donnell.
"It is not right that a sick man should be called other than a sick man," he said. He argued that O'Donnell had been assessed until he was "blue in the face" but did not receive treatment.
Brendan O'Donnell gave evidence over five days, beginning on March 4th. He was intensively questioned about his life and said he was beaten by his father and devastated by his mother's death when he was nine. He was first examined by psychiatrists when he was five.
He told of his time in prisons and institutions in Ireland and England from when he was 13.
He denied he had come up with a story about the devil's voice directing him to kill and denied he was "killing for pleasure and not hearing voices at all". He denied he was acting mad. He said he had enjoyed killing all three people.
In the course of the hearing counsel for O'Donnell accepted that semen taken from the vagina of Imelda Riney on May 9th 1994 was that of Brendan O'Donnell.
The defence called evidence from two of O'Donnell's former teachers to support their argument that, he had been deeply disturbed from childhood. The defence case concluded with testimony from three psychiatrists and one psychologist that O'Donnell was suffering from a major mental illness, schizophrenia.
This was challenged by the State whose medical witnesses argued that he suffered from a combination of personality disorders which did not affect his volition or control over his actions.
O'Donnell did not attend the final weeks of the hearing after the court heard he had tried on March 11th to hang himself in his room at the Central Mental Hospital.
The judge directed, with the agreement of counsel, that the trial could proceed in his absence.
Brendan O'Donnell returned to the court on Monday to hear his counsel's closing speech and the judge's charge. He was back again yesterday for the verdict.