ON the 45th day of the trial of Mr Brendan O Donnell, the head of the Central Mental Hospital said yesterday he could try to keep the defendant alive "but I may not succeed".
The trial yesterday became the longest running murder trial involving a single defendant in the history of the State.
Defence counsel Mr Patrick MacEntee SC continued his cross examination of Dr Charles Smith, who accepted Mr MacEntee's suggestion that it was now a question of managing a suicide risk.
Dr Charles Smith told the Central Criminal Court that Mr O'Donnell has a propensity for unpredictability "and I will never be able to save him from that".
He said Mr O'Donnell was regarded at the Central Mental Hospital as "seriously self injurious but he said that was different to being suicidal. Ordinary clinical suicidality is usually related to illness but in his view Mr O'Donnell's problems were "mainly behavioural".
"I will be taking risks with him for some time to come," he said.
Dr Smith said he and other staff at the Central Mental Hospital had decided to return Mr Donnell to Mountjoy Prison from Dundrum in early January 1995, but Mr O'Donnell was back in Dundrum just days later, after seriously cutting himself and then trying to remove the stitches.
He said the decision to return Mr O'Donnell to prison was wrong in the sense he injured, himself so quickly.
"But I don't know what would have made it right", he told Mr MacEntee.
"With Mr O'Donnell one is talking of behaviour that is unpredictable, chaotic and disorganised", Dr Smith said.
"I can't keep him alive either," he said. "I can try to but I may not succeed."
He denied he was using Alice in Wonderland language and making words mean what he wished them to.
The trial was adjourned early yesterday afternoon until this morning by Mr Justice Lavan because of a failure to supply certain documents to counsel.
Mr Justice Lavan told the jury that he very much regretted the inconvenience and said he wanted this to be "the last time" he had to adjourn the case "due to the failure to supply documents".
He said the trial was delayed yesterday morning for 30 minutes because the State had provided documents shortly before 10.30 am to the defence which the defence was unable to read in time for the trial to get under way at 10.30 am. He said the documents related to the transfer of Mr O'Donnell from the Central Mental Hospital to Mountjoy Prison.
Mr O'Donnell (21), a native of, Co Clare but of no fixed abode, faces 12 charges.
He has denied the murder of Ms Imelda Riney (29) and her son Liam (aged three) between April 29th and May 8th 1994. He also denies the murder of Father Joseph Walsh (37), the former cute of Eyrecourt, of Galway. Earlier yesterday Dr Smith said the had photocopied medical records relating to Mr O'Donnell and made these available to counsel for the purposes of the trial. However he had omitted to copy both sides of the notes. That was his error and he apologised for that. He said the error had now been corrected and the notes made available.
He said he was not aware of notes from September 1994 which stated Mr O'Donnell had asked other prisoners to cut his throat and inflict injuries upon him while detained in Mountjoy Prison.
Dr Smith strongly denied any suggestion he was withholding information from the court.
The witness said it was his view Mr O'Donnell is of normal intelligence and not in the mental handicap or borderline range.
The trial continues today.